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South Korea beat Iceland 5-1 in a friendly sending a message to teams coming for the World Cup in Qatar that "we are ready for a challenge". South Korea and Japan are the only teams to beat any European teams from Asian confederation, and Korea are now going further up after their famous 2-0 win over Germany in the 2018 World cup in Russia. Before, they had a record of beating Italy, Spain and Portugal in World cup 2002 when they finished 4th.
Korea, who are world 33 ranked, have world class quality players in their squad now. Best of the players from Korean squad play in top European leagues - Son Min Heung of Tottenham being the most famous one. We have seen Hwang Hee Chan playing and scoring goals for Wolves. Likewise, Jung Woo Young plays at Al Sadd (Qatar, where Xavi was coaching), Jeong Woo Yeong at SC Freiburg Germany, Lee Kang In at Mallorca Spain, Hwang Vijo at Bordeaux France, Lee Jae Sung at Mainz Germany are a few of them. Many of these players have experience and were part of the team which won Asian games gold medal in 2018. But, they lost to Qatar in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
With former Portuguese player Paulo Bento coaching Korea, we can expect better results from them. Beating Iceland in dominant style was just a start- that too without star players. Korea are 2nd below Iran in World Cup qualifiers, winning 4 of 6 in the third round, 2 draws and without any loss.
He has got a credible track as manager. He led Sporting Lisbon to UCL qualification 3 times consecutively, a record for the club. He brought up players like Nani, Joao Moutinho, and Miguel Veloso. He was manager of Portugal when they reached the semi final of Euro 2012.
Bento is filling confidence in the Korean players and they are gaining experience from playing in Europe. They might be hoping to reach the Semi final again with this team and manager. Ironically, Bento played his last match for his country against Korea when Portugal lost 1-0 in World Cup 2002 in Korea.