Korea Republic managed a third consecutive victory after the convincing 2-0 win over Myanmar in a World Cup qualifying match.
This was the opening World Cup 2018 qualifying game for the national team. It was a proper test for newly appointed Uli Stielike. A 2-0 win might mean a poor performance from Korea given that they were overwhelming favourites to get a convincing win against the lowly ranked the team. Just as with the draw between Japan and Singapore, Myanmar managed to come up with an impressive defensive performance. However, they were opened up time and time again by Korea, who were unlucky to not score more goals.
Myanmar are ranked 143rd in the world and are expected to finish bottom of the group. For Korea, it is about different priorities since the team are expected to finish as the group winners without fail. After having given the fans a poor World Cup 2014, Stielike will be hoping to win some of them back under his regime. Stielike came close to lifting the trophy after just few months in charge of the national team. Korea were defeated by Australia in the recent Asian cup final tournament. Stielike has backed his team to score more goals when they come up against a minnow in the next match.
“If you look at the scoreline then you may think there was not a big difference between the teams.However, we dominated possession and had few problems at the back. We only had difficulties in attack, as we missed lots of chances and our passing was not what it should have been,” saidStielike. Goal difference is unlikely to be of major importance given that Korea are the strongest team in the group, but they will hope to score more goals in their next qualifying game against Laos.
