AFC Asian Qualifiers
Cho Gue-sung broke the deadlock at the end of a first half where the Koreans had more than 80 percent of possession before second-half strikes from Hwang Hee-chan, Son Heung-min, Hwang Ui-jo and Lee Kang-in gave Jurgen Klinsmann his first competitive victory as the Korea head coach.
Unsurprisingly, it was the Koreans who dominated the game from the off. But credit to Takayuki Nishigaya’s side, the hosts failed to threaten Singapore’s veteran goalkeeper Hassan Sunny in the early stages of the second round opener.
Hwang In-beom’s shot from distance sailed wide of the goal in the 10th minute before FC Midtjylland striker Cho failed to connect with a cross from Hwang Hee-chan three minutes later.
The Taeguk Warriors had a goal ruled out for offside in the 23rd minute when Cho’s header back across the goal was tapped in by Lee Jae-sung only for the celebrations to be cut short by the assistant referee’s raised flag.
Hassan had to be on his toes to deny Lee Jae-sung again when the Mainz midfielder had a header on target from a Lee Kang-in cross in the 29th minute before the home side went the closest without scoring as Cho’s thunderous strike from close range rattled the crossbar five minutes later.
However, Singapore’s resistance was finally broken just before the half-time break when Cho’s well-timed run helped him escape the attention of the defenders and turn in a Lee Kang-in cross to make it 1-0 to the home side in the 44th minute.
The floodgates opened when Hwang Hee-chan doubled Korea’s lead, heading in a Cho cross four minutes after the restart before captain Son’s stunning left-foot strike from distance made it 3-0 for the hosts in the 63rd minute.
Song Ui-young, playing against his country of birth, then conceded a penalty for a foul on Seol Young-woo and substitute Hwang Ui-jo sent 39-year-old Hassan the wrong way from the spot, giving the Koreans a four-goal lead with 22 minutes still to go.
Paris Saint-Germain attacking midfielder Lee Kang-in, who was in the thick of the action throughout the game, sealed the 5-0 victory for the hosts with a strike from the edge of the box in the 85th minute.
On the second matchday in Group C on November 21, Klinsmann’s side will travel to Shenzhen to take on China PR while Singapore will look to bag their first points of the qualifiers when they welcome Southeast Asian rivals Thailand to National Stadium
