South Korea and Greece open Group B hostilities today with an intriguing clash of styles in store.
Speed and astute tactical awareness are the calling cards of a Korean side that tore up the World Cup formbook when making it through to the semi-finals in 2002.
Greece, who also turned soccer’s natural order on its head to win Euro 2004, will be relying on their height and set-piece superiority.
South Korea’s splendid showing on home turf eight years ago has inevitably led to the cranking up of expectations from their supporters, expectations that Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-yueng has tried to dampen.
“Since Korea got to the semi-final in 2002, many people expect the same result,” he said. “I was in Australia at the time, I was 13 and just a fan then. No one in Korea expected the national team to go to the semi-final so now the expectations are too much.”
“But we will try our best and our squad is getting stronger. If we try our best we can qualify for the group stage and then who knows, we could maybe go onto the quarter-final,” he said.
Greece came crashing down to earth after Euro 2004.
Otto Rehhagel’s side failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup and then put up a limp defense of their European crown in 2008.
After a wobbly start to qualifying for South Africa they hit form and sealed their ticket with a notable play-off success over Ukraine.
They, like their Asian opponents, are desperate to emerge from this fixture with three points to have a chance of joining expected Group B winners Argentina in the last 16.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
Italy crashed to a 3-0 loss away to Norway, as the four-time FIFA World Cup champions made a disastrous start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on Friday, while Belgium had to settle for a draw in North Macedonia. Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland all scored in the first half in pouring rain in Oslo as Norway made it a night to forget for Italy, who missed out on the past two World Cups. “I have no explanation. Our supporters don’t deserve this kind of match. We need to do some soul-searching. It’s unacceptable,” Italy captain and goalkeeper Gianluigi
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
RSS