Mohammed Kudus was among the heroes for Ghana, who managed to take all three points despite letting an initial two-goal lead slip
Group H: Ghana’s task is now clear: bury the ghosts of Soccer City and reach the knockout stage,” writes Nick Ames from Education City Stadium. “Victory over Uruguay, who defeated them so heartbreakingly on that climactic night in 2010, would complete the job and on present form drama seems a given.”
More correspondence: “The World Cup embraced chaos today,” writes Shiladitya Pandit. “Unhinged. Crazy. Stupid. Breathtaking. And I hate every second of it.”
An email: “Bento has already made two impactful substitutions,” writes Peter Oh. “I hope he does Korea right by further exploring his Squid, er Squad Game.”
It’s a terrific win for Ghana. An absolutely thrilling game, the second of the day, draws to a close and Ghana’s players are beside themselves with delight. The players of South Korea are devastated and the camera cuts to the stands where many of their fans are in tears. Their manager Paulo Bento has been shown a red card for his part in the post-final whistle protests.
His side are bottom of the group with just one point from two games and will have to beat Portugal in their final game to have any chance of going through. Ghana go second, behind the Portuguese, with three points with a final group game against Uruguay ahoy. The South American side take on Cristiano Ronaldo and chums in this evening’s final game.
Peep! Peep! Peeeeeeeeep! The ball goes out for another South Korea corner but Anthony Taylor blows for full time before they can take it. He’s immediately surrounded by irate South Koreans, all of them apparently oblivious to the fact that the 12 corners they’ve already taken have been truly dreadful.
90+11 min: Lee Kang-in shoots from distance but his effort is high and wide.
90+10 min: South Korea win a corner, their 12th of the game. Salisu thumps the inswinger clear with a meaty header.
90+9 min: The ball’s crossed towards Kim Jun-su at the far post but he’s outmuscled and Ghana clear.
90+8 min: South Korea continue to press for an equaliser but the Ghanaian rearguard remains stout … for now. Can they hang in there for another minute or so?
90+6 min: South Korea get it launched into the Ghana box twice in quick succession but are unable to get anybody on the end of the deliveries. Another cross comes in from the right and Cho flings himself through a gap between two defenders attempting to head home from close range. He’s penalised for a foul.
90+5 min: On a hat-trick, Cho shoots with venom from a tight angle when he should have squared the ball. Lawrence Ati-Zigi parries with both hands at his near post.
90+4 min: Son has an attempted cross blocked by Denis Odoi. It’s a corner, which Ghana clear.
90+3 min: We’re almost a third of the way through 10 minutes of added time.
90+2 min: South Korea substitution: Kim Min-jae off, Kwon on.
90+1 min: Son has a goalbound shot blocked and a Ghanaian defender throws himself in front of the follow-up.
90 min: Baba Rahman heads a South Korea cross from the right out for a corner. The dead ball is sent to the near post, where attackers are conspicuous by their absence. Ghana clear.
89 min: Into the knockings we go but one imagines there’ll be plenty of added time given all the subsitutions, goal celebrations and a couple of significant breaks in play for treatment to injured players.
87 min: There’s a lengthy break in play as Gideon Mensah receives treatment for cramp. He’s helped off the pitch and replaced by Baba Rahman.
86 min: Kim Jun-su leaps at the far post to connect with a cross from the right but is unable to steer his header on target under pressure from a couple of Ghanaian markers. Wide.
83 min: Chance! Not for the first time in recent minutes, South Korea left-back Kim Jun-su misses a decent scoring opportunity, shooting high over the bar when he had plenty of goal to aim at.
81 min: Muhammed Kudus off, Alexander Djiku on. Ghana switch to a back five.
79 min: South Korean substitue: Hwang Ui-jo on, Jung Woo-young off.
79 min: Ghana triple-substitution: Daniel-Kofi Kyerah, Kamal Deen-Sulemana andf Denis Odoi on, Tariq Lamptey and the Ayew brothers off.
78 min: Ghana have a decent penalty shout turned down for a Kim Young-gwon foul on Inaki Williams. The South Korea defender swung his boot and got plenty of shin but no ball and might consider himself lucky. I’ve seen them given for less, as the fella says.
77 min: Oof! Kim Jun-su has a good shooting opportunity but the left-back elects for precision over power and has his sidefooted effort cleared off the line by Mohammed Salisu.
75 min: Ghana form their defensive wall and a couple of South Koreans kneel in front of it. Lee Kang-in’s free-kick is terrific, a dipping effort that threatens to sneak in the bottom right-hand corner but Lawrence Ati-ZIgi is on hand to claw the ball out for a corner.
73 min: Tariq Lamptey is booked for taking out Son as the South Korea striker threatened to get past him and into a good shooting position. Free-kick for South Korea, about thirty yards from the Ghana goal, a little right of centre.
70 min: Following Cameroon’s draw with Serbia we have our second thriller of the day featuring an African team. A low ball was crossed into the South Korea penalty area and Inaki Williams shaped to shoot only to miss the ball completely with an air-shot. On it trundled into the path of Muhammed Kudus, who sidefooted a low effort into the corner.
Ghana retake the lead! Muhammed Kudus sweeps home his second of the game, firing a low diagonal shot past Kim into the bottom corner.
67 min: “I do enjoy how much more animated Dion Dublin gets about a No9 scoring a header than he does about anything else in football,” writes Nath Jones. Yup, Dion is on BBC co-comms for this game and has been very animated for the past few minutes. As anyone who watches H|omes Under The Hammer will know, the only thing that gets him more excited than No9s scoring headers are houses with “stairs up to the bedroom”.
64 min: There’s been a break in play so Hwang In-beom can receive treatment for a head wound. He’s spilling claret and goes to the touchline for a few staples or stitches. His team soldier on with 10 men for the time being.
62 min: That’s an astonishing comeback from South Korea, who score two goals in three minutes, with both coming from Cho Gue-sung headers to convert crosses from the left. Ghana were powerless to stop his second, as he got the run on Moahmmed Salisu and Gideon Mensah, who could only look on helplessly as he outjumped them.
South Korea draw level! Cho heads home from the edge of the six yard box again, leaping highest to convert Kim Jun-su’s cross from the byline.
60 min: An inspired bit of touchline management from Paulo Bento, whose decision to send on Lee pays immediate dividends. The substitute picks Tariq Lamptey’s pocket out on the left touchline and sends in a terrific cross. Jo was on hand to score with a header from the edge of the six-yard box.
South Korea pull one back. Cho Gue-sung heads home from a Lee Kang-in cross from the left mere seconds after the substitute had taken to the pitch.
56 min: South Korea substitution: Lee Kang-in comes on for Kwon Chang-hoon.
54 min: Andre Ayew canters down the inside left and tries to play a ball inside to Inaki Williams. It’s intercepted by Kim Jun-su, who puts the ball out for a corner. Jordan Ayew’s delivery is put out for a corner by Jung Woo-young, who comes perilously close to flicking his near post defensive header past his own goalkeeper. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
52 min: Kim Jun-su sends an excellent cross into the Ghana box and picks out Cho Gue-sung, whose firm header is saved theatrically by Ghana goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi. That’s South Korea’s first shot on target in this tournament but the goalie saved fairly comfortably.
50 min: Tariq Lamptey wriggles inside Son and Jo before slicing a left-footed shot high and wide of the South Korea goal.
47 min: South Korea right-back Kim Moon-hwan receives a pass out on the right touchline. Having started brightly, he spent the second half of the opening half pinned back by Jordan Ayew. He gets a cross in but his unable to pick out his fellow full-back Kim Jun-su.
46 min: Ghana get the ball rolling for the second half. SOuth Korea have made a half-tiome substitution with Na Sangho replacing Jeong Woo-yeong.
Son’s terrible corner kicks. “He’s really been struggling with these, not been able to produce a decent corner in ages,” writes Richard Prasad. “None of the ones he’s taken today barely reached the near end of the six-yard box. But it’s been that way for a while - with Tottenham and in the warmup match against Cameroon in Seoul in September. Yet in that time he’s done pretty well with free kicks. I think that Kang-in Lee takes corners, etc for his team in Spain, but doesn’t get any with the national team for some reason.” The reason today possibly being that he is currently on the bench.
Ghana’s first goal. Some clarification: While there is no doubt the ball hit Andre Ayew’s arm on its way into the South Korea penalty area, the goal stood because it was not him who scored it. If he had turned the ball home it would almost certainly have been disallowed.
Half-time musings: It’s been an entertaining, if slightly odd game. Ghana were seriously under the cosh for the first 23 minutes, conceding corner after corner after corner, all of which were wasted by South Korea.
Their opener came against the run of play and courtesy of an excellent dead ball delivery into the South Korea penalty area which was eventually converted by Mohammed Salisu. A whipped Ayew cross 10 minutes later needed only the faintest of touches from Mohammed Kudus to double the African side’s lead.
Peep! The teams troupe off for their half-time refreshments, with Ghana two goals to the good. Jordan Ayew provided the assists for both, his crosses into the South Korea penalty area being converted by Mohammed Salisu and Mohammed Kudus.
45+5 min: Ghana win a corner and Jordan Ayew’s delivery is outstanding this time. The inswinging ball threatens to drop under the cross-bar but is put over by a combination of Kim Seung-gyu’s glove and Thomas Partey’s shoulder.
45+4 min: South Korea right-back Kim Moon-hwan plays a give-and-go on the outskirts of the Ghana penalty area but is dispossessed by a well-timed Gideon Mensah challenge.
45+2 min: We’re into five minutes of added time and Ghana have their first corner of the game. Jordan Ayew, already the assist-provider for both his team’s goals, channels his inner Son Heung-min and fails to clear the first defender, who heads away at the near post.
45+1: Hwang In-beom eschews an opportunity to pass to Son Heung-min in a decent position and elects instead to curl a shot from distance high and wide of the Ghana goal. A clearly exasperated Son is not best pleased.
43 min: Son runs to the byline from a deep position but is crowded off the ball by a posse of retreating Ghanaians including Lamptey and Kudus. Throw-in for South Korea, deep in Ghana territory. Nothing comes of it.
41 min: Kwon Chang-hoon overhits a pass into the pocket of space down by the corner flag and the ball bounces harmlessly out of play. Elsewhere, Jung Woo-young goes to ground feeling his jaw gingerly after a collision with one of his own teammates.
40 min: “You are being biased don’t comment with a forked tongue comment like a true commentator,” writes Abdur, without further elaboration.
38 min: Having roared out of the traps in this game and put Ghana under the most intense pressure, South Korea have really wilted. They do, however, get a shot off here at the end of an attack, Son shooting over the bar. Had his effort gone under it, the goal would not have stood as there was a very late flag for an offside earlier in the build-up.
36 min: “Are you positive that the picture you posted of the referee is actually a picture of Anthony Taylor?” asks JR in Illinois. “It really does not look at all like Anthony Taylor to me. It looks like a picture of Szymon Marciniak. #notallbaldrefereeslookalike.” Hmmm … I think you might be right, JR. Apologies, Anthony. And to you too, Szymon.
Crikey! Ghana double their lead. Jordan Ayew whips a delightful cross from the left into the South Korea penalty area and Mohammed Kudus gets the faintest of touches with his forehead on the edge of the six-yard box. Goal!
