Kim Eun-joong meets Nigeria on the way to the semifinals.
The Korean U-20 national team will play the FIFA U-20 World Cup quarterfinal against Nigeria at the Santiago del Estero Stadium in Argentina on the 5th at 2:00 am (Korean time). Nigeria, the formidable team that eliminated host country Argentina in the round of 16.스포츠토토
As the tournament is in progress, it is meaningless to compare objective power. Every game is an all-out war as it is eliminated if it is lost.
First of all, Korea has one day less rest days than Nigeria. While Argentina played at 6:00 am on the 1st, Korea played Ecuador at 6:00 am on the 2nd.
However, Korea has the advantage of playing the match at the same place where the round of 16 was played. On the other hand, for Nigeria, the venue for the Korea match is the first stadium in this tournament. As it is a short-term match, the difference in rest days is a big variable, but the familiarity of the place and the lack of movement are favorable circumstances for Korea.
The U-20 national team has faced Nigeria four times in its history. It’s tight with 2 wins and 2 losses. They also met twice in this competition. The first match was in 2005, and South Korea won 2-1 with goals from Joo-Young Park and Ji-Hoon Baek. In the 2013 tournament in Türkiye, they lost 0-1. The most recent match was in 2016 at the Suwon Continental Cup, where South Korea won 3-0. But it doesn’t mean much as it’s already been 7 years.
If Nigeria wins, the next opponent will be the winner of Colombia v Italy. Of course, passing the quarterfinals is the first priority, but considering that difficult opponents such as Brazil and Uruguay are tied up in the opposite bracket, Kim Eun-joong is expected to perform as well as the last tournament.