Doha
South Korea coach Paulo Bento said the team would see a “different” Son Heung-min against Ghana today after the forward got used to his face mask during their opening World Cup match.
Son wore the mask during his side’s 0-0 draw against Uruguay in Group H following surgery to repair a fracture around his left eye he suffered earlier this month while playing for Tottenham.
Portuguese boss Bento said he was not worried about his team’s lack of a cutting edge in the first match ahead of their second game in Qatar.
“It’s completely normal to face some challenges during the first game,” he said yesterday.
“As far as Son is concerned, he was recently injured and he was also adapting, trying to feel comfortable with the face mask.
“First he needed to feel at ease with his teammates and afterwards with the opponents. The second game will be different.
“He has already been able to play throughout the 90 minutes and as a team we needed to do our best so that we can take advantage of his skills.”
Bento warned that Ghana, who lost their opening match 3-2 against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, were strong in defence and attack but he talked up his own team.
“We have also players that are playing in the Premier League,” he said.
“We know it will be a difficult game. We need to be up to the task such as we were in the first game and we expect that we will have better performances both individually and collectively.”
Bento said he did not feel under strain ahead of today’s match.
“I feel no pressure whatsoever and I would love our players to feel the way I do but I know they come from a different culture,” said the Portuguese.
“We also deal with the pressure in different ways.”
South Korea vs Ghana
When: Today, 4pm
Where: Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan Capacity: 44,667
Key stats:
South Korea are the only Asian country to have reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, when they were co-hosts in 2002, while Ghana share the distinction of being one of three African countries to have gone furthest at the World Cup when they got to the quarter-finals in 2010.South Korea have been to more World Cups than any other Asian country with their trip to Qatar their 11th appearance, since the first in 1954. The last 10 have all been consecutive, since 1986.
South Korea have met African opposition at the World Cup on three occasions - beating Togo in 2006, drawing with Nigeria in 2010 and losing to Algeria in 2014. Ghana’s only Asian opponent at a World Cup finals tournament was Australia in 2010, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Ghana made their first World Cup appearance in 2006 and are now competing at the finals for a fourth time. The Black Stars had won four Africa Cup of Nations titles before they qualified for their first World Cup.
