South Korea topped their group and head into the round of 16 as the current favorites to win the Asian Cup. Son Heung-Min was the star in their final group game and Korean fans will hope he can hope he’ll guide them into the Quarter Finals by beating Tuesdays opponents Bahrain. Here is our preview and prediction for this AFC Asian Cup Round of 16 Game;
South Korea v Bahrain – Preview & Prediction
Who: South Korea vs. Bahrain
When: Tuesday January 22nd at 5pm (Local Time) / 10pm (Korea Time)
Where: Rashid Stadium, Dubai
South Korea narrowly edged out both the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan 1-0 during their opening two group stage games, and then looked impressive beating China 2-0 in the final game. Son Heung-Min was the star last Wednesday and he’ll be the dangerman on Tuesday evening as well. Bahrain narrowly squeezed into the round of 16 finishing third in Group A behind hosts UAE and Thailand. They qualified after beating India 1-0 in the final group game, thanks to an injury time penalty. They are defensively strong, but lack a little going forward.
H2H Record:
South Korea – 10
Draws – 4
Bahrain – 2
Last Time; South Korea 2-1 Bahrain. This was at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Koo Ja-Cheol scored both goal either side of half time on that day to give South Korea the win. Bahrain did beat Korea also at the AFC Asian Cup all the way back in 2007, once again 2-1.
Prediction:
Overall I see Korea being too tight at the back to concede and having enough going forward especially from set-pieces. Two-Nil seems like the most likely outcome from this game in my opinion.
South Korea 2-0 Bahrain
Finally
Just quickly here is the South Korea squad for the AFC Asian Cup;
Any thoughts, comments or questions. Feel free to comment below or message me via Twitter.
Modern Seoul 