2010 World Cup Portugal v North Korea half time report
Portugal 1 North Korea 0
If you thought that North Korea were at the World Cup to just make up the numbers, then think again. Despite being behind at the break, they have given a great account of themselves once again, and are slightly unfortunate to be behind to Raul Meireles 27th minute strike.
After a day of torrential rain in Cape Town, both sides failed to get to grips with the wet conditions early on with plenty of players losing their footing early on at crucial times. An early slip in the Korean backline presenting an opportunity to Cristiano Ronaldo whose deflected shot was easily gathered by Ri Myong Guk.
The goalkeeper was far from convincing minutes later though, as he was caught in no-man’s land from a Simao corner, luckily for the Koreans, Ricardo Carvalho’s header rebounded back off the post and to safety.
Despite the early pressure from the Europeans, North Korea settled down as the match wore on and with striker Jong Ta Sea impressing once again, they created a couple of decent openings.
First the marauding right back Cha Jong-Hyok smashed a long range shot narrowly wide before Yong-Jo Hong stung the palms of Eduardo with an extravagant strike from the corner of the area.
The only goal of the half came against the run of play with 27 minutes gone, and it was the two Portugal centre midfielders’ that combined to great effect to score Carlos Quieroz’s side first goal of the tournament. Former Chelsea midfielder Tiago played a wonderfully weighted pass through to Meireles who confidently stroked the ball into the net.
For the remainder of the half North Korea huffed and puffed in their opponents half, but the Portuguese backline stood strong.
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