South Korea come from behind to beat Czechia
South Korea came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory over Czechia in their 2026 World Cup opener.
Ladislav Krejci put the Czechs ahead on the hour mark, but South Korea responded through Hwang In-beom before Oh Hyeon-gyu netted an 80th-minute winner.
South Korea made the better start to the contest and could have taken the lead in the opening quarter of an hour. Lee Han-beom’s close-range header went narrowly over the bar before Lee Kang-in’s long-range shot was well saved by Matej Kovar.
Son Heung-min had a decent chance to break the deadlock just before the break but he shot wide from the edge of the area.
Kovar was called into action once again at the start of the second half to deny Hwang and Lee Jae-sung, and made a good block to stop Son from opening the scoring.
South Korea’s missed chances came back to haunt them in the 59th minute when Vladimir Coufal’s long throw was met by the head of Czech captain Ladislav Krejci to bury the ball past Kim Seung-gyu.
They led for just seven minutes though, as Hwang finally put the ball past Kovar with a composed finish into the bottom-left corner.
Czechia thought they had retaken the lead in the final 15 minutes when West Ham United’s Tomas Soucek headed in, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Three minutes later, South Korea did take the lead through substitute Oh. The ex-Celtic man turned in Hwang’s cross from close range to secure the three points for his country.
Cover Photo: FIFA World Cup 2014 by Mariya Butd used under license by CC BY 2.0.
