It took a stoppage-time goal from Toni Kroos to save the Germans’ World Cup hopes, from the jaws of a draw that would have felt very much like a defeat. The defending champions face elimination-bound South Korea in a must-win game at the Kazan Arena.
FIFA World Cup
South Korea vs Germany
Group F
Wednesday 27 June
Kazan Arena
16:00
To Win
South Korea 12/1
Draw 11/2
Germany 1/5
South Korea
South Korea suffered a 2-1 defeat against high-flying Mexico at Rostov Arena last Sunday, ensuring back-to-back defeats for the Asians.
South Korea, who had only been knocked out once in the group stages since hosting the tournament in 2002, are now on course to make it back-to-back first round exits. This means the Asians should go back to the drawing board and start to rebuild the 2002 momentum that got them to the semi-finals.
South Korea were largely disappointing in both of their two outings in the tournament against Sweden and Mexico, meaning they have very little chance against the defending champions, who have everything to play for.
However, the Asians do have an excuse after their team was struck by many big name injuries in the build-up to the tournament and they also lost their main defender Park Joo-ho in the first game.
South Korea need to beat Germany 3-0 and hope Mexico beat Sweden by the same scoreline – basically the Asians have very little chance of progressing – whilst a win for their opponents will take them to the knockout stages.
Germany
Germany were on the brink of elimination when they had to come from a goal down to win 2-1 despite being one man short. The Germans showed heart and proved why they are world champions.
Joachim Low’s side were a goal down at half-time, and we all knew it will be a mammoth task for the Germans to score two goals in 45 minutes against a rock-solid Swedish defence, who had kept eight clean sheets in their last 12 matches.
Germany needed at least a draw to stay in contention in Group F after opening with a disappointing 1-0 loss to Mexico. They are now second in the group, three points behind Mexico and level with Sweden.
The good thing for Germany is that their fate is in their own hands. A win will see the Germans march into the Last 16 regardless of what happens in the other game.
Probable line-ups:
South Korea: 4-4-2
Cho Hyun-Woo; Min-Woo Kim, Young-Gwon Kim, Hyun-Soo Jang, Yong Lee; Woo-Young Jung, Se-Jong Joo, Sung-Yueng Ki, Hee-Chan Hwang; Jae-Sung Lee, Heung-Min Son
Germany: 4-2-3-1
Neuer; Kimmich, Rudiger, Hummels, Hector; Kroos, Rudy; Muller, Reus, Ozil; Werner.
Prediction: Germany to Win Both Halves (12/10)
Germany showed true character and played with so much heart to overturn the 1-0 deficit against Sweden. The world champions will be full of confidence and I’m expecting them to ease past South Korea, who have been disappointing in their first two games.
Written by Banele Pikwa