Looking to keep their Group B unbeaten record intact, early pacesetters South Korea will welcome Iraq to Yongin Mireu Stadium for an AFC World Cup qualifier on Tuesday night.
The Taegeuk Warriors secured a comfortable two-goal success on the road last time out, whilst the Lions of Mesopotamia recorded a narrow victory over Palestine.
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After their September schedule yielded four points from two matches against Palestine and Oman, South Korea commenced their October offerings with a two-goal win at the home of Jordan on Thursday night, when goals either side of the half-whistle from Lee Jae-Sung and Oh Hyun-Gyu secured maximum points.
Following the collection of seven points from their opening three matches in the third round of qualifying, the Taegeuk Warriors are sitting boldly in first place in the Group B standings, already creating a three-point buffer between themselves and third-placed Jordan.
Taking charge of the national team earlier in the year for the second time after a one-year stint as boss between 2013 and 2014, Hong Myung-Bo has enjoyed an unbeaten start back at the helm of South Korea, who are the third-highest placed AFC member in the FIFA rankings after Japan and Iran.
The Taegeuk Warriors will be looking for a vast improvement on their most recent home match in World Cup qualifying on September 5, when the overwhelming favourites for Group B supremacy were forced to share the points with Palestine following a goalless draw in Seoul.
© Imago
After failing to qualify for the last nine World Cups, Iraq’s crops of 2024-25 are looking to emulate the national legends of the late 1980s, who managed to get the country onto football’s biggest stage in Mexico during 1986, when the Asian minnows failed to collect any points.
With AFC now receiving eight automatic spots at the World Cup instead of the previous four due to the expansion of the tournament for the 2026 edition, the Lions of Mesopotamia have a genuine shot at making their first appearance at the competition in exactly four decades.
Iraq boosted their dreams of making it to North America massively on Thursday night, when Jesus Casas‘s troops recorded a narrow one-goal victory over bottom side Palestine courtesy of a first-half strike from 57-cap striker Ayman Hussein.
Despite sitting level on points with South Korea at the top of the section standings, the Lions of Mesopotamia are major underdogs for success on Tuesday night, when they will face off against a side who have kept five straight clean sheets in this fixture across all competitions since January 2015.
© Imago
Suffering a muscle injury whilst on club duty with Tottenham Hotspur, South Korea’s superstar Son Heung-min will be unavailable once again on Tuesday night.
Forced off in the 51st minute during the win over Jordan, Eom Ji-Sung is a doubt for this match, a development that will be of considerable concern to those of a Swansea City persuasion.
Amongst a host of names who ply their trade in various leagues across the world, there are pieces of high-level talent within the Taegeuk Warriors ranks, including Kim Min-Jae of Bayern Munich and Lee Kang-In of Paris Saint-Germain.
After keeping a clean sheet against Palestine on Thursday night, Iraq should stick with a centre-back pairing of Manaf Younnes and Zaid Tahseen ahead of goalkeeper Jalal Hassan.
There is set to be an alteration for Lions of Mesopotamia in the engine room, though, with Amjad Attwan expected to replace Safa Hadi as Amir Al-Ammari‘s partner.
South Korea possible starting lineup:
Hyeon-Woo; Young-Woo, Yu-Min, Min-Jae, Myung-Jae; Yong-Woo, In-Beom, Kang-In, Jae-Sung, Joon-Ho; Min-Kyu
Iraq possible starting lineup:
Hassan; Ali, Younnes, Tahseen, Doski; Attwan, Al-Ammari, Bayesh, Jasim, Amyn; Hussein
After keeping clean sheets against Oman, Kuwait and Palestine, the defence of Iraq will face one of the sternest tests in AFC football on Tuesday night.
Even with Spurs’ Son out of action, we expect that South Korea will have too much quality for the visitors, resulting in a third win of the Group B campaign for the Taegeuk Warriors.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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