Luay Ahmed
Uruguay and South Korea kicked off their World Cup campaign this afternoon with an exciting match at the Education City stadium in Doha.
The first twenty minutes of the match passed with both teams getting a feel for their opponents, without producing any threatening goalmouth action. The first serious chance of the game fell to Uruguay in the 15th minute, when a long ball out of defense from Jimenez found midfielder Federico Valverde in the box. The Real Madrid man struck a left footed volley that inched over the bar.
Another long ball out of defence caused further problems for South Korea, as his long ball was chested down across the face of the goal, and Luis Suarez and Darwin Nunez both failing to connect with the ball as it rolled across the six yard box.
South Korea’s first big chance fell to Hwang Ui-Jo, who took down a cross at the edge of the box but skied his effort over the bar. South Korea followed up on this opportunity with five minutes of pressure around the Uruguayan penalty area, producing multiple promising attacks down their right hand side, without managing to play the final incisive pass.
The last few minutes of the half saw Uruguay retake the initiative, with Godin heading a corner onto the post, as the half drew to a close with the scores tied at 0-0.
The second half started with both teams continuing to play at a high tempo, with South Korea fashioning the first chance with a header that was easily gathered by the Uruguayan goalkeeper Rochet.
In the 60th minute, Edinson Cavani entered the game and got right into the action 8 minutes later as he had a shot in the box blocked via resolute South Korean defending.
Both teams continued pressing forward without creating obvious goalscoring opportunities, but a curling Darwin Nunez strike from the 18 yard line which narrowly went wide sprung the game into life in the last ten minutes.
With one minute left to go in normal time, Federico Valverde struck a shot from distance which cannoned off the post. South Korea responded immediately with Heung Min Son taking a long distance strike of his own which narrowly missed the bottom corner.
Full time: Uruguay 0 – 0 South Korea.