South Korea boss acknowledges 'difficult' Brazil task, bemoans tight World Cup schedule but will not give up

DOHA: South Korea head coach Paulo Bento acknowledged the magnitude of the task that his team face ahead of their knockout phase match against Brazil, but stressed they will not give up.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference on Sunday (Dec 4), Bento bemoaned the lack of rest time that his side have had between their last match and their round of 16 fixture.

South Korea’s last match against Portugal was on Saturday, and they face Brazil on Monday.

"After the physical tiredness from the previous games, especially the last game against Portugal where we were emotionally very fatigued, we decided to let our players rest yesterday and we trained this morning,” he said.

“After the group stage (in 2018) I do not remember seeing games played after 72 hours. I think the space in between the matches was longer. In my opinion, I do not think it's fair to play every match after 72 hours but we need to accept it.”

Brazil, on the other hand, had the luxury of rotating their team in their 1-0 loss against Cameroon, having already booked their spot in the next round.

“It’s difficult to play against a great team such as Brazil. In my opinion, Brazil has the likelihood of winning this World Cup and if we add this to all the burdens that we have, our task obviously will be very difficult,” said Bento.

“Having said that, we will try, we will not give up.”

The last time South Korea made the quarter-finals of the tournament was in 2002, when they co-hosted the event with Japan. They would go on to finish fourth.

“I do not think that it is something that we need to consider at this moment, Our goal, our target and our energy should be directed to what we should do tomorrow and what has to be done tomorrow. After that we’ll see what the future is