The Black Stars of Ghana will be looking to be back to winning when they face South Korea in today’s crunch Group H tie at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan.
South Korea put up a spirited performance against Uruguay in their first game as they recorded a 0-0 draw while the Black Stars suffered a 3-2 narrow defeat against Portugal.
Per form guide, South Korea are on a four-game unbeaten run and they are hoping to maintain the momentum when they face the Black Stars in the epic clash.
Otto Addo’s men are now finding their rhythm as they look to bounce back from Portugal loss with a victory over Son Heung-Min- inspired South Korea.
Ghana have played South Korea four times in international friendly games with the West Africans winning three against South Korea’s one.
The two nations last played on June 9, 2014 when the Black Stars put four past the Asians through Jordan Ayew’s hat-trick. South Korea’s only victory against the Black Stars came in June, 2011 when they beat the West African team 2-1.
Although South Korea failed to have a shot on target in the entire second half of their game against Uruguay, Ghana head coach Otto Addo maintains that they are still a strong team who can cause problems.
"First of all, surely, we have a chance especially since they played a draw so if we win against South Korea and Portugal win hopefully against Uruguay, then we will be second so the chance is still big,” Otto Addo told the media ahead of Monday’s clash.
"And surely it will be very, very tough to beat South Korea because they are good. But now we have to win, we are under pressure but they are too”, he added.
Addo is likely to drop the 5:4:1 formation and go with a more attacking approach of 4:2:3: 1 as he looks forward to recording his first World Cup win at all costs.
There might be a couple of changes in the Ghana team to suit the formation.
South Korea are also likely to go with the same approach with no major changes to the starting lineup that started against Uruguay.
Key Facts
Ghana has never lost a Match Day Two group game in the FIFA World Cup as they boast one win and two draws.
South Korea also have never won a Match Day Two group game at the World Cup as they managed four draws and six defeats in ten games.