South Korea lost to Italy 1-2… Failure to advance to the U-20 World Cup finals

Korea’s advance to the final was frustrated.

Korea lost to Italy in the semifinals of the FIFA U-20 World Cup and failed to advance to the final.

Korea, led by coach Kim Eun-joong, lost 1-2 in the quarterfinals against Italy at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup held at La Plata Stadium in Argentina on the 9th (Korean time).스포츠토토

Korea, which was aiming for a second consecutive final following the runner-up in the previous tournament in Poland in 2019, gave up the winning goal to Italy in the 41st minute of the second half and was pushed back to the 3rd and 4th place.

Korea will play a 3rd and 4th place match against Israel, who lost 0-1 to Uruguay in the previous semifinal, at the same place on the 12th at 2:30 am.

Korean players are taking pictures before the semi-final match between Korea and Italy. [yunhap news]

Korea launched a 4-2-3-1 formation that day with Lee Yeong-joon (Kimcheon) as the frontline striker.

Bae Jun-ho (Daejeon), Lee Seung-won, and Kim Yong-hak (Portimonense) were placed in the second line, and Kang Sang-yoon (Jeonbuk) and Park Hyun-bin (Incheon) started in the midfield.

The defense consisted of Cho Yeong-gwang (Seoul), Choi Seok-hyeon (Dankook University), Kim Ji-soo (Seongnam), and Choi Ye-hun (Busan), and Kim Jun-hong (Gimcheon) as the starting goalkeeper.

With the strategy of ‘defense first, counterattack later’ in this tournament, Korea used ‘practical soccer’ to advance to the semifinals while falling behind the opponent in terms of possession and number of shots in the group stage, round of 16, and quarterfinals.

On this day, Korea performed well against Italy, a strong player in Europe, in a similar game pattern.

The opening goal was for Italy in the 14th minute of the first half.

Cesare Casadei, who had scored 6 goals before this game, scored the first goal by hitting Ricardo Turicchia’s grounder cross with a right-footed mid-range shot.

South Korea’s Lee Seung-won celebrates with his fellow players after scoring the equalizer in the semi-final match against Italy. [yunhap news]

In the 23rd minute of the first half, Lee Seung-Won’s penalty kick turned the game around.

Inside the penalty area, Bae Jun-ho was pushed and fell by opponent Mattia Chanotti, and the referee declared a penalty kick after conducting a video review (VAR) after proceeding with the game as it was at first.

Lee Seung-won, who started as the kicker, calmly aimed at the left side of the opponent’s goal with a right-footed shot to make it 1-1.

Lee Seung-won scored 2 goals and 4 assists in this tournament, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the attack points (2 goals, 4 assists) recorded at the time by Lee Kang-in (Mallorca), who won the Golden Ball in this tournament in 2019.

In the second half, we had several chances against each other.

In the 13th minute Italy’s corner kick situation, the referee did not recognize it as a goal after exchanging opinions with the video review room about whether Matteo Fratti’s header crossed our goal line.

In the 18th minute of the second half, Lee Seung-won fired a powerful right-footed mid-range shot, but it was blocked by the opponent’s goalkeeper.

In the 39th minute of the second half, Lee Yeongjun’s shot, following Bae Junho’s breakthrough to the left, went skyward.

Bae Jun-ho showed an impressive appearance in the 25th minute of the second half as well, penetrating his left side with skill.

Fans cheer as Lee Seung-won scores the equalizer at Gwanghwamun Plaza in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 9th, when the U-20 World Cup semi-final match between Korea and Italy was held. [yunhap news]

Italy eventually scored the second goal in the 41st minute of the second half when the atmosphere was overtime.

Italy, who received a free kick from Park Hyun-bin’s foul right in front of the penalty area, immediately scored with Simone Papundi’s left-footed shot, becoming the main character of the match’s winning goal.

Even on this day, Korea was significantly behind in terms of offensive indicators, such as 7-19 in the number of shots and 3-9 in the number of effective shots, but harassed Italy in terms of content.

The loss was disappointing, but it was a game without any leeway.