With the first ever winter World Cup out in Qatar now in full force and plenty of sides already qualified through to the knockout stages of the tournament, Tottenham Hotspur fans will be watching on with interest – particularly for the loveable Son Heung Min and his performances for South Korea.
On Friday evening, the 30 year old again more than played his part in their final Group H game against Portugal, and he again played the entire 90 minutes for his country as you would expect given the regard he is held in, and he helped them to (many would think) an unexpected 2-1 victory over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal side and for fans who like a flutter if you placed a bet on football online this game would have been even more enjoyable.
With Portugal initially taking the lead in the fifth minute of play, Kim Young-Gwon levelled matters up just ahead of the half hour mark, but Sonny again showed his class and laid on the assist one minute into stoppage time for Hwang Hee-Chan to score the winner and secure their place in the last 16 knockout stage.
The unexpected three points goes down as another of the shock results we have seen so far at the World Cup, but it was enough to put South Korea through to the next round as they secured second place in the Group H table based on the goal difference determinations over Uruguay who also finished on four points from the three games. Spurs fans will be wondering how far Sonny and South Korea might be able to go in the competition given the group stage saw one win, one draw and one defeat for them, but at least from our perspective, as long as Sonny remains fit and confident, his exploits at this competition should mean he returns in good form for us after his time at the tournament ends and we can fully focus again on the domestic 2022/23 Premier League campaign given all the interruptions we have seen so far in the first half of the campaign,
Again though, after all the off pitch controversies that have surrounded the award of the World Cup to Qatar, the disruption it has caused to all major European leagues, and then of course the surrounding issues that have been aired by human rights groups with the competition now taking place, for fans who can put those heavily important things aside and just focus on the football, the Qatar World Cup will definitely be remember for the shocks and the football action that was at play.
Group H and South Korea admirably prove that given their route to qualification and how tight it ultimately became. Even knowing that they had conquered Portugal for the win, their fans still had an anxious wait on a qualification point given how tight the points and goal difference ultimately became.
That was roughly an eight minute wait before they could truly celebrate and they were confirmed in second place and the knockout phase was assured for them, but World Cups always bring that element of agony crossed with excitement and at the end of the day, that is exactly what fans love World Cups for.
Be nice when Spurs play again then…eh.
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