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Friday, 06 November 2009 08:31 |
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 NIGERIA: Korea Republic are Asia’s only survivors in the quarter-finals of the FIFA U17 World Cup after their dramatic injury-time equaliser for a 1-1 score line and a subsequent 5-3 penalty shootout victory over Mexico in Bauchi on Thursday.
Iran, unbeaten during the group stages, tumbled out after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Uruguay in Calabar.
The Koreans were the dominant side and hit the woodwork twice before Guillermo Madrigal gave Mexico a 1-0 lead just before half-time.
The Asian side continued to have the run of play after the break, and survived a disallowed goal from the Mexicans in the dying seconds before substitute Kim Dong-jin scored his first goal for his country two minutes into injury time to make it 1-1.
After extra time failed to produce a winner, the Koreans won the penalty shootout by scoring all their five attempts. They now meet hosts Nigeria on Monday.
Korea Republic coach Lee Kwang-jong said: “It was a tight match that we could have lost well before extra time. We never gave up.
“When you’re a goal down, and you’re hitting the crossbar and missing chances, it can feel like it's just not your day. But I told my players to forget all that and to believe in themselves. Once again, we got great support from the Nigerian fans, for which I'd like to thank them.”
Korea Republic had advanced from Group F with two victories, finishing behind Spain.
In Calabar, Iran fell to Uruguay with all goals coming in extra time. Sebastian Gallegos scored in the 104th and 107th minutes before Afshin Esmaeil pulled one back for Iran in the 119th minute.
“These are the best teams in the world. Today we met a team that was better than we were,” said Iran coach Ali Doustimehr.
“We gave them a good game and tried our best, but we couldn’t take our chances tonight and that was a big problem. And we showed the world that we can play in Iran.”
Iran had Asia’s best record in the group stages, winning Group C with seven points ahead of Colombia, the Netherlands and Gambia.
On Wednesday, United Arab Emirates exited the tournament after losing to Turkey. Japan had failed to progress past the group stages. |
