Australia vs South Korea. Prediction and Preview. Probable Lineups, Team News, Stats, and more

Australia will meet with South Korea in the AFC Asian Cup quarter final match at the Al Janoub Stadium. The fixture will take place on Friday, February 2, beginning at 21:00 IST.

Parimatch News will tell you everything you need to know ahead of the upcoming match.

Australia News & Current Form: 

The Australian national team is on a roll to compete for their next trophy. In 2011, they finished 2nd at the Asian Cup and were one step away from the gold medals, where they lost to Japan in the final in a hard-fought overtime match, in which they conceded an unfortunate goal.

But in 2015, they still managed to take home the trophy, beating South Korea in the final on the outcome of extra time. In 2019, Australia crashed out at the quarter-final stage, where they lost to UAE (0:1).

The national team entered the playoffs of the сurrent Asian Cup campaign quite confidently, finishing 1st in the Group B standings, where they scored 7 points in 3 matches. In 2 matches they managed to win and 1 draw. 

By 2 points they managed to get ahead of the second Uzbekistan and 3 points ahead of the third Syria. The team’s performance was not the best for themselves and they scored 4 goals, but in defense everything was quite good and only 1 goal conceded.

In the opening round of the final tournament of the Asian Cup, they managed to confidently beat one of the weakest teams of this tournament India (2:0). The score could have been much higher, but there was a little lack of chances and many shots did not reach the goalpost. 

Squad of Australian national team after another successful game

Of the 28 shots that Australia had at India’s goal, only 6 of them reached the goalpost. In addition, the Australians controlled the ball more than their opponents (71% to 29%). They managed to score only at the start of the second half after Irvine’s shot and in the 73rd minute of the match, Jordan Bos secured the win with an assist from Riley McGree.

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South Korea News & Current Form: 

It’s playoff time at the Asian Football Cup, and the tournament is about to get a lot more interesting. However, the group stage cannot be said to have been boring. There were enough unexpected results and even sensations. Who would have guessed that Tajikistan, Syria and Palestine would make the play-offs, even taking into account the fact that it was possible to advance to the play-offs even from third place. 

Few expected that one of the highest status teams of Saudi Arabia or South Korea would have to go home already at the end of January, long before the final. But someone will have to give in. If the Saudis fulfilled their part of the programme and took first place in their quartet, the Koreans left a very contradictory impression. It was not only the second place after Bahrain, but the third place was hanging by a thread. 

Meanwhile, the South Korean national team has won the Asian Cup twice, but that was back in the early days of the Cup in 1956 and 1960. Since then, the Tigers of Asia have reached the final four times and won bronze medals the same number of times. 

South Korea was also the first Asian team to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup. It happened in 2002, and the tournament was held just in Japan and the Korean peninsula. The author of the sensation was the well-known Guus Hiddink, well, and a little bit more referees. 

At the same time, the Korean national team, being one of the strongest on the continent, has not been able to win the Asian Cup for 64 years. Those first victories, mentioned at the beginning, were won in tournaments where only four teams participated. 

Just over a year ago at the World Cup in Qatar, the South Koreans made it out of the group, but in the 1/8 finals they fell to Brazil, who were at the peak of their form at the time. The result was a 1:4 defeat, and the federation went to change the coach. Remembering that the greatest success the team achieved with the European team, Jurgen Klinsmann was invited to the post of chief. However, one of his conditions was to coach the team remotely. 

At the group stage of the tournament, the national team took second place with one win and two draws. The goal difference is 8:6. South Korea is the most productive at the group stage.

The top scorer of Korean national team  – Lee Kang-in

In the first match, there was a confident victory over Bahrain, with Lee Kang-in scoring twice. Then, with a full advantage, only a draw with the team of Jordan. Both teams scored a goal each, and the Koreans only got back into the game in extra time.

Many people thought the draw in the third game against Malaysia, where everything was decided in the last minutes, was strange. It seems that by doing so South Korea did not want to meet Japan in the early stages of the play-offs. 

In the 1/8 finals Asian Tigers met with Saudi Arabia. The main and extra time of the match was not enough to determine the winner. Everything was decided by a penalty shootout. In the 46th minute of the match Abdullah Radif put his team ahead. South Korea fought back in the penalty shootout. Cho Gue-Sung equalized in the 9th added minute. In the penalty shootout, the Asian Tigers were stronger 4:2.

At the last Cup Asian Tigers took the first place in their quartet. In the 1/8 finals they beat Bahrain 2:1, and in the quarter-finals they lost to Qatar 0:1. The latter eventually won the tournament.

Australia form guide: W-W-W-W-D-W

South Korea form guide: W-W-W-D-D-W

Australia vs South Korea Head-To-Head Record:

• January 31, 2015: South Korea 1 – 2 Australia (AFC Asian Cup);
• November 17, 2018: Australia 1 – 1 South Korea (International Friendly);
• June 7, 2019: South Korea 1 – 0 Australia (International Friendly).

Australia vs South Korea Predicted XI:

Australia’s possible starting lineup (4-4-1-1): Ryan; Atkinson, Souttar, Rowles, Behich; Metcalfe, Irvine, Bos, Goodwin; McGree; Boyle.

South Korea’s possible starting lineup (3-4-2-1): Hyeon-woo; Seung-hyun, Min-jae, Young-gwon; Tae-hwan, Jae-sung, In-beom, Hyun-seok; Kang-in, Woo-yeong; Heung-min.

Statistical preview of the match Australia vs South Korea:

• Australia’s First XI average age is 28.3 years, Korea’s First XI average age is 29.2 years.
• Felix Brych has been appointed as the center referee. The referee has already served six games this season, showing an average of 3.5 Yellow Cards and also whistles 21 fouls per game. 
• In the FIFA ranking of national teams South Korea is in the 23rd place, WHile Australia is two lines below in the 25th.
• The South Korean national team won the Asian Cup twice in 1956 and 1960 and reached the final of the tournament four times.
• Korea’s best achievement at World Cups is fourth place in 2002.
• South Korea have scored at least 3 goals in 8 out of 9 official games.
• South Korea scored more than a goal in 7 of 9 games.
• Including friendlies, the Korean national team is unbeaten in 10 games.
• Australia are unbeaten in 6 official matches.

What has been said before the match:

Gaffer of Korean national team Jurgen Klinsmann ahead of game with Australia:

“Win against Saudi Arabia gives the team an enormous amount of energy, it gives the team even more spirit. This is a group of players I enjoy working with so much because they badly want to do well for their country.”

“We wanted to win the game badly before the penalty shoot-out. Anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out. Now we’re waiting for these 53-and-a-half hours and we will recover, we have a good spirit and we’re looking forward to Australia, which is a good team that just won 4:0.”

“We knew this would be a very difficult game against a very good Saudi Arabia team. We are happy. And We should have scored a couple of goals more because we had many chances but Saudi Arabia also had more chances, all the way to the penalty shoot-out.”

“We prepared for penalties, we trained for it and Hyeon-woo made two saves which is wonderful. We expected this game tonight, we got this game against a very good team and now we’re looking forward to the quarter-final.”

Australia vs South Korea Prediction:

Australia is looking impressive at this edition of the Asian Cup – three wins in four meetings, playing confident and cohesive football. The attack squeezes out an average of 2 goals per 90 minutes, and the defense is one of the best in the tournament – they boast 3 clean sheets, with 0.25 conceded on average per match. 

The Koreans, by contrast, looked great only in the first round, and then in three consecutive games they failed to win in regulation time, while the level of opponents in Group E could hardly be called high. The first playoff match did not dispel doubts: in the 1/8 finals against Saudi Arabia they avoided defeat in the last seconds, Son Heung-min and Co. could only win on penalty shootout after overtime. The reason for such problems is that the nominal guests have huge problems in defense. Jurgen Klinsmann’s men can’t find the necessary balance and chemistry, which has led to a dismal statistic: South Korea have conceded in every match at this tournament, with an average of 1.75 conceded per game.

The Australian national team has an excellent chance of progressing to the next stage by exploiting the turmoil in the ranks of the South Koreans, who were considered favorites before the tournament. Mathew Ryan and his men are feeling confident, as they showed in the Round of 16, and will go into the match determined to continue their momentum. The history of head-to-head encounters between these teams shows that matches usually tend to be closely fought while the result is very unpredictable. Therefore, we expect that thanks to a more steady state and a balanced game Australia will be able to at least not lose in regulation time. 

Parimatch News staff prediction:

We say: Australia will not lose in regulation time – Yes.

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