South Korea produced a brilliant second-half comeback to register a thrilling win over Czechia in their group A opener on Friday. Substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu grabbed the winner for Korea in the 80th minute as they beat the European nation 2-1 at the Estadio Akron in Guadalajara.
The Taeguk Warriors, competing in their 11th consecutive FIFA World Cup and led by the talismanic Son Heung-min, were left frustrated for most of the first half as Czechia, who are back on football's biggest stage for the first time in 20 years controlled the defence and frustrated the Asian side's attacking moves. Son came closest in the opening period, his speculative effort from distance sailing just over the crossbar.
The former Tottenham striker missed a decent amount of chances as he had attempted five of South Korea's eight efforts in the first half. Czechs, who chased the game for most of the first half and did not have a shot on target until their captain Ladislav Krejci rose to power home a header from a Vladimir Coufal’s long throw for the opening goal in the 59th minute.
After that the match came into life and eight minutes later, Lee Kang-in threaded a pass through the Czech defence and midfielder Hwang In-beom did the rest, wrong-footing both his marker and goalkeeper Matej Kovar before delicately lifting the ball into the far corner to make it 1-1.
Czechia's Tomas Soucek thought he had restored the lead in the 77th minute when he powered home a free-kick header, only for the linesman to correctly rule him offside. With 10 minutes remaining, substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu completed the turnaround in the most clinical fashion as he latched onto a perfectly-timed cutback from Hwang before sliding the ball home at the near post to complete the turnaround.
Goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu's outstanding late save from Michal Sadilek, who had the goal at his mercy, proved the decisive moment in the stoppage time as South Korea held firm to get the three crucial points.
It is the first time in four editions of the FIFA World Cup that South Korea have made a winning start to their campaign.
Czechia will next face South Africa on Thursday, 18 June, while South Korea take on World Cup co-hosts Mexico on the same day, who beat South Africa 2-0 in the earlier Group A encounter.
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