S Korea advance after beating Portugal 2-1

Sensational South Korea! Great for Asia to see then go through. Son Heung-min was crying tears of joy, good on him. The less said about Uruguay and their disgraceful reaction to the loss, the better. Glad to see the end of Suarez.

3 Asian teams now in the R16, maybe a record?! I always thought Asia would have a good chance in Qatar having played so much there over the past few years.

@Fighto!

Let's see what happens to South Korea when they face Brazil. Not a very convincing performance from South Korea in this group stage.

The less said about Uruguay and their disgraceful reaction to the loss, the better. Glad to see the end of Suarez.

@Fighto!

Uruguay was obviously upset that they didn't advance. It was one of the most high stakes matches this tournament so far, so I understand why they were so aggressive towards the ref.

Honestly, this group was a toss-up between Uruguay and South Korea. I'm not sure how I feel that South Korea advanced, considering that Portugal would be more "careful" and "defensive" in this final group match to minimize the probability of an injury to their key players.

Hard to believe how good Asian teams are. They just know how to beat the powerhouse European teams.

@ WealthyGuy - I see it as great for Asian football. We hear too much of Euro fans moaning about Asia having 4 automatic spots (plus 1 play off spot) and now 3 have advanced proving Asia deserves all the spots they get. Soon to be 8 in 2026, deservedly.

South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all scored important victories against some of the best football teams of our time. Hats off to the footballers, support staff, and fans of the Asian teams. Well played.

They subbed Ronaldo half-way and played more defensively than usual. 

Ronaldo was tactically subbed off in the 65th minute. He was being embarrassed out there and was mostly responsible for SKs first goal.

We hear too much of Euro fans moaning about Asia having 4 automatic spots (plus 1 play off spot) and now 3 have advanced proving Asia deserves all the spots they get. Soon to be 8 in 2026, deservedly.

That's as much a function of the WC increasing from 32 teams to 48 next time. Europe will also get three more spots so less likely that major nations will fail to qualify.

However, Asia will still be relatively over-represented with 8 teams. Remember - Qatar is the fifth highest ranked Asian football team.

More surprises (!) (!) (!) :) ; both groups yesterday were decided until the last second (again); I think we can all agree that this was one of the most exciting group stages of all time; Congratulations, SK (!) (!) (!); Portugal made seven changes but they’re still an incredibly talented team even without all those guys, and the South Koreans were great(!); so happy for Japan and SK (!); and it’s time to make some bets: the way I’m looking at it, we’re gonna have England-France and Portugal-Spain in the right side; in the other side I’m not gonna say much BUT there’s Japan and SK (that would be “interesting” :) ), the US and Australia (also “interesting”, heheh); two European matches, one Asian (between these two great neighbors) and the *USMNT vs the socceroos; *that would be something(!) :)

Superb winning goal from South Korea.

Some karma for Suarez for his 2010 goal line handball v Ghana.

Dr.Cajetan CoelhoToday  07:33 am JST

South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have all scored important victories against some of the best football teams of our time. Hats off to the footballers, support staff, and fans of the Asian teams. Well played.

Absolutely, and we also have the US 0-0 victory against England.

Incredible--tying them at their own game.

Imagine England beating the US in baseball, or American football---would never happen.

Well played SK.

Many decent shots on goal and some great ones that went in.

Good for Asia

Absolutely, and we also have the US 0-0 victory against England.

If memory serves me correctly, I think the USA made it to the semi-finals in 2002. A goaless draw really isn't a great result for either team, but rather the inevitable outcome to one of the most boring matches in the history of the world cup.