Game 12: Kingdom of Sweden v Republic of Korea

The 3rd Asia v Europe matchup to start the 1st week of the finals. 2-0 to Europe so far, can Korea buck the trend?

Sweden (The Blue-Yellow) are at the World Cup for the first time since 2006 and this time they are without Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Sweden have never been much more than making up the numbers in major competitions in recent years. Not having made the past 2 world cups and not making it out of the group stage in the EUROS the past 3 tournaments.

FIFA world ranking flatter them with a 24th rank. Seb Larsson of Hull City and Emil Forsberg from RB Leipzig are their star players. Sweden seem to perform very well against smaller nations, however when going up against tough opposition they have a very hard time breaking the deadlock. 

Sweden made it through to the World Cup by beating the Netherlands to 2nd spot on goal difference. They lost to France, Netherlands and Bulgaria but it was their 4-0 defeat of Belarus and 8-0 over Luxembourg that got them the goal difference they needed to qualify for a playoff spot; where they beat Italy 1-0 over 2 legs.

South Korea (Taegeuk Warriors) have also been heavy hitters in Asia, but this is arguably their worst generation of players for a while. They used to boast many Premier League and Bundesliga stars like Park Ji-Sung and others. Now they majority of their players play in the K-League with only Ki Sung-Yueng (Swansea) and Son Heung-min (Tottenham) players of note overseas.

Korea have been to every world cup since 1986 but have only managed to get out of the group twice in 8 attempts. They did so in 2002 when they co-hosted the World Cup making it all the way to the Semi-final, but as I said, this new generation of players are but a shadow of their former glory. Still strong in Asian standards, Korea made it to the semi-final of 4 of the past 5 Asian Cups, losing the final in the last tournament to Australia in extra time.

Now ranked 57th int he world, lower rank only then fellow Asian teams Saudi Arabia, Japan and Hosts Russia. Korea struggled to break down teams in Asia who showed resilient defence only scoring 11 goals in 10 games and conceding 10. They ended qualifying in 2nd behind Iran, barely beating out Syria for the final spot.

Sweden have looked good defensively and had to beat Italy to get to the World Cup. Korea struggle to score and struggle to keep clean sheets. This honestly looks like it could be one of the more boring games. Sweden 1-0.