Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Sydney: Coach Uli Stielike insists Korea Republic must work hard to avoid becoming another high-profile casualty at the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 ahead of Monday’s semi-final with fellow former winners Iraq at Stadium Australia.
Two-time champions Korea were the first side to secure their place in the semi-finals after beating Uzbekistan 2-0 after extra-time on Thursday, their fourth consecutive win of the campaign without conceding a goal.
Video highlights: Korea Republic 2-0 Uzbekistan
But with defending champions Japan and Asia’s number one ranked side Iran knocked out in the quarter-finals, 1956 and 1960 champions Korea now find themselves the highest ranked side remaining in the tournament.
“We had the rankings before the tournament as Iran first, Japan second, Korea third and Uzbekistan fourth, and now we only have Korea out of the four top seeds left in the tournament. If we don’t want a surprise we have to work hard,” said Stielike, who was appointed Korea coach in September.
“We are working to bring Korea back to the top rank in AFC and to go forward in the world rankings. We are 69th and we can’t be happy about this position, but you can only go forward with victories and victories can only come from good performances.
“We have to accept that role as favourites as we are coming here in third place in the AFC rankings, Iraq are 13, so I think there is no discussion that we have to accept this role, but we also know we have to play the champion of 2007. It is history, but we have to be careful.”
Korea have enjoyed an additional day's rest following their extra-time exertions against Uzbekistan, with 2007 champions Iraq edging out Iran 7-6 on penalties in Canberra on Friday following a thrilling 3-3 draw after extra-time.
“I said that I hoped our opponents would play extra-time, but I hoped that they would play 11 against 11 as it is not the same as all the second half and extra-time they played with one more man, unlike we did the day before,” added Stielike after Iran were reduced to 10 men midway through the first half against Iraq on Friday.
“But if we go into the game only thinking about this, it is the worst we can do. You will only feel this advantage if you work it out. It means we have to play fast ball, we have to fight and we have to challenge. We have to force Iraq to run, and only if this is the case, we can have at the end of the game a physical advantage, but we have to work it out.”
Stielike is set to choose from a full available squad for the semi-final despite the grueling win over Uzbekistan, which was secured thanks to two extra-time goals from Son Heung-min, with only Lee Chung-yong and Koo Ja-cheol missing having earlier been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament.
“Our first priority after extra-time against Uzbekistan was recovering the players and it seems after three days after the game that all the players are fit for Monday's game,” said Stielike.
“It seems we don’t have any story with injuries or sickness so this is good news and everything is running OK, so we don’t have any complaints at the moment.”
Photo: WSG