With late goal, South Korea shocks Portugal

South Korea’s players celebrate at the end of the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group H football match between South Korea and Portugal at the Education City Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on December 2, 2022. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

South Korea secured passage out of Group H and into the knockout stage with a dramatic stoppage-time goal by Hwang Hee-chan to defeat Portugal, 2-1. 

Prior to the goal, the Koreans sat in fourth place in the live group standings. The 2-1 victory tied them with Uruguay with four points and with each having a net-zero goal differential. South Korea, though, advanced by winning the goals-scored tiebreaker, 4-2.

On Wednesday, in a hectic finish to Group C, Mexico was eliminated by the goal-differential tiebreaker after it briefly appeared El Tri instead would be eliminated by the “fair play” tiebreaker because the team had been assessed more yellow cards than Poland.

On Thursday, Germany was sent packing after the combination of a controversial Japan goal and a suspiciously lackadaisical Spain effort put the Germans on the wrong end of the Group E tiebreaker. Earlier Thursday, world No. 2 Belgium was bounced from the tournament after squandering several opportunities to score in a 0-0 draw against Croatia to close play in Group F. 

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