Big guns Saudi Arabia and South Korea battle for last-eight berth
Jurgen Klinsmann has told his South Korea players to be prepared to go all the way to a penalty shoot-out in their efforts to defeat Saudi Arabia ahead of their Asian Cup clash on Tuesday as both nations look to set-up a quarter-final meeting with Australia.
Klinsmann will be going headto-head with Saudi Arabia head coach Roberto Mancini for the second time since September, when the nations met in a friendly match in England that the Koreans won 1-0 to give the
German his first victory in charge of the Taeguk Warriors.
But Klinsmann admits the challenge facing his side at Education City Stadium will be very different compared to the narrow success achieved at Newcastle’s St James’s Park in only Mancini’s second game in charge of the three-time AFC Asian Cup winners. “You can see now his handwriting on the team after 10 games and they’re a very good team, but we’re prepared,” Klinsmann said of Mancini, who was appointed in August. “We have our strengths, we have our spirit that we need to believe we can move on.
“We have to believe that we can beat Saudi Arabia, but it will be a lot of hard work, it will be nail biter and it might go to a penalty shootout. Anything can happen in football, you cannot predict what will be next."
Klinsmann’s team stuttered through the group phase, eventually finishing second in Group E after following up an opening win over Bahrain with draws against Jordan and Malaysia but, despite those struggles, he remains confident in his team’s ability.
Both teams go into the meeting with concerns over their form, with Saudi Arabia struggling to overcome Oman in their tournament opener and drawing 0-0 with Thailand, while the Koreans have shown defensive frailties in their three games so far.
“South Korea are very good , even if they conceded six goals in the group stage it doesn’t change their strength because they have very good players,” Mancini said.