FIFA World Cup 2018: Skipper Andreas Granqvist Scores The Winner For Sweden Against South Korea

Venue: Nizhny Novgorod Stadium

Sweden – Korea

1 – 0

Ball possession

Sweden – Korea

56% – 44%

Sweden- Starting XI (4-4-2)

R.Olsen, M.Lustig, P.Jansson, A.Granqvist, L.Augustinsson, V.Claesson, S.Larsson, A.Kkdal, E.Forseberg, M.Berg, O.Toivonen

South Korea- Starting XI (4-3-3)

H.W.Cho, J.Park, Y.Kim, H.Jnag, Y.Lee, J.Koo, S.Ki, J.Lee, H.Son, S.Kim, H.Hwang

The story before the match clearly shows the hegemony of Sweden over South Korea. According to the record book, Sweden has won all the four previous clashes against South Korea in their first encounter in World Cup. Even South Koreans have the biggest nightmare in 1948 Olympics against Sweden when they got humiliated by 12-0 which was the joint biggest win registered by any team in the history.

First Half: Full of Swedish efforts

To repeat history once again, Sweden started making moves to score their first world cup goal of the tournament, but Korean goalkeeper H.W.Cho was in no mood to repeat the history. Even their Midfield was so strong that it takes Swedish forward (Marcus Berg) to attempt the first shot of the match after 20 minutes of the game, it is the most interminable wait of the first shot at this World Cup. After the first shot, Sweden started continuously attacking the opponents with the skills, but the defenders pretended to be a wall of their side. Later on, the Korean forwards began attacking, but that turned out to be failed moves. Swedish manager, J. Andersson was continuously pushing his team to score, but this was not that easy for his boys. After 45 minutes of the game, additional 2 minutes was waiting for Sweden, in the 46th minute of the game, Swedish Forward Marcus Berg tried to dodge the Korean defense but the effort ended up with goal-less affair but once again history is made, this game has seen 23 fouls so far in the first half which counted as most in this world cup.

Stats of the First Half

Sweden Korea

11 Shots 3

3 Shots On-target 0

65% Possession 35%

13 Fouls 17

5 Corner 1

0 Yellow card 1

Second half: A penalty scored by Sweden

At the start of the second half, Sweden looked very calm, but they were keenly searching for a purpose. At the 62nd minute of the game, Korean Midfielder Kim Min-woo tackled horrifically wrong which was encashed by Sweden as a penalty. Andreas Granqvist, a Swedish defender, took the responsibility on his shoulder to grab the Goalkeeper one-on-one, later on; he scored at the bottom right corner of the goal post. This was the first penalty scored by a Swedish player after 2002 world cup match against Nigeria. In the whole match, South Koreans failed to create one Shot-on-target after Saudi Arabia in this World Cup.