Koreans fume at Taylor as Ghana grab the glory
SON Heung-min was left in tears following defeat against Ghana because of a “lack of justice” shown by English referee Anthony Taylor, South Korea assistant coach Sergio Costa has claimed.
Tottenham’s Son was visibly upset at the final whistle after South Korea suffered a 3-2 loss which leaves their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread.
Cho Gue-sung scored twice in three second-half minutes to haul South Korea level before Mohammed Kudus fired Ghana to a dramatic victory.
South Korea coach Paulo Bento was shown a red card following a confrontation with Taylor at the end of the match. Bento was furious South Korea were denied a corner when Taylor blew up after 11 minutes of stoppage-time – with ten having originally been signalled.
Asked why Son was so upset at the conclusion of the pulsating Group H fixture, Costa replied: “The reaction is a reaction of a person and a group which feels a lack of fairness at the end of the match.
“It is a normal reaction of someone that did all they could to win, and were not able to do so. I believe we should be sad, and feel a lack of justice at the end of this match.
“The result is totally unfair. Not even a tie was fair. We clearly deserved the win.”
Bento will now miss his side’s final group game against his home country Portugal.
Commenting on Bento’s outburst, Costa added: “It was related to the fact that we thought a different criteria was used.
“In the first half, they let a very similar situation be played, and in the second half, when we had an opportunity for a corner kick, the referee took that opportunity away from us.
“Paulo reacted, I was close by, and he said nothing inappropriate to the referee. It was a lack of fairness.”
South Korea had forced 13 corners in the match but neither of their goals came from set pieces.
Following their defeat to Portugal, Ghana’s win – their first at the World Cup since 2010 – provides them with hope of reaching the last 16.
Ajax’s Kudus will take the plaudits after he scored in both halves following Southampton defender Mohammed Salisu’s opener with 24 minutes gone.
“He is a good character and a very good player,” said Ghana manager Otto Addo of Kudus, 22.
“He is on the right track to be a great, great player, and I only have praise for him. Big congratulations to the team to be mentally that strong and to come back and score the third.
“At the end it was passionate defending. We were a bit lucky because South Korea put us under a lot of pressure. But our passionate fight got rewarded.”
The other Group H tie, between
Portugal and Uruguay last night, did not finish until after the Daily Press deadline.
In Group G, Cameroon fought back from two goals down to force a 3-3 draw with Serbia.
Serbia struck twice in first-half added time before the interval through Strahinja Pavlovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to turn the game on its head after Jean-Charles Castelletto had given Cameroon the lead. Serbia went 3-1 up when Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his first goal of the tournament early in the second period, but substitute Vincent Aboubakar and Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting saved the Africans.
Elsewhere in the Group G, Brazil were rescued by Casemiro as they left it late to secure their passage to the knockout stages with a 1-0 win over Switzerland.
The Swiss, who held the Brazilians to a 1-1 draw in Russia four years ago, looked set to repeat the feat until the Manchester United man struck seven minutes from time to claim the points.
In Sunday’s late game, Niclas Fullkrug came off the bench to earn Germany a hard-fought draw against Spain and keep their hopes alive in Group E. A surprise loss to Japan in their opening game means Hansi Flick’s side do not have their destiny in their own hands, but a 1-1 draw – where Germany hit back after Alvaro Morata had opened the scoring – was a good response.