Back to basics for Korea Republic 

Dubai: Korea Republic, says head coach Paulo Bento, will continue playing their brand of football after the Taeguk Warriors advanced to the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 quarter-finals by overcoming a gritty Bahrain on Tuesday. 

Bento’s men needed extra-time to see off Bahrain 2-1 in their Round of 16 tie at the Rashid Stadium to set up a meeting with the impressive Qatar next.

Goals by Hwang Hee-chan and substitute Kim Jin-su secured the East Asians their passage to the quarter-finals but they were not at their fluid best against Bahrain and Bento said Korea Republic have to play in the style they are most comfortable with.

“I think in this match, maybe the performance wasn’t as good as the previous match. What happened was that we made a lot of easy mistakes.

“We lost the ball easily, without pressure from the opponents which, of course, became worse for us and easier for Bahrain,” said the Portuguese tactician.

“The idea was to control the best characteristics that the opponents had."

 


Round of 16: Korea Republic vs Bahrain

“For example, the second goal was really difficult because they never started their short build up and in this kind of situations, it is difficult to press.

“At the same time it was important that we had long ball possession to allow the team to make good defensive transitions and play as far as possible from our goal.”

Bento said Korea Republic struggled to assert themselves.

“I think in many moments of the game, we were not able to make that kind of things. The idea is that when we’re winning 1-0, we need to have balance in the team, being able to defend the result but also looking for the second goal.

“We couldn’t do this, because we didn’t control the game as well as we should have.”

Korea Republic will take on Qatar in their quarter-final tie in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City Stadium on Friday, and Bento said the target will be to impose their style of play against the impressive West Asians, who have yet to concede a goal after defeating Iraq 1-0 in their last 16 tie.

“We should play the way we have played since I arrived. I think in almost all the matches till now, we’ve played in the same way, with the only exception the (friendly) match against Australia in Brisbane.

“In all the other matches, we played our own style. This is what we have done before and what we will do in the next game as well. There must be a balance between defending a lead and scoring."


Source: the-afc.com