World Cup 2022: South Korea vs. Portugal head-to-head record

By Ben Knapton | 01 Dec 2022 07:57, Last updated: 04 Jun 2025 23:38

South Korea and Portugal will bring the curtain down on their World Cup 2022 Group H campaigns when they do battle in Friday's showdown at the Education City Stadium.

Fernando Santos's side are already guaranteed to progress to the last 16, having picked up six points from wins over Ghana and Uruguay, and they only need to draw to finish first.

Meanwhile, South Korea - who sit on one point - must win to give themselves any hopes of advancing, as they sit two points behind Ghana in the race for second place.

However, the Asian nation have previous when it comes to getting the better of Portugal, as they beat the 2016 European champions 1-0 in their only meeting so far 20 years ago.

Coincidentally, that success also came in the group stage of the 2002 World Cup - on the final matchday too - where ex-Manchester United man Park Ji-sung scored the only goal of the game in the 70th minute.

Portugal ended that game with nine men as Joao Pinto and Beto were both sent off - the former was then alleged to have hit the referee - and not even the likes of Luis Figo and Pauleta could find a way through for A Selecao on the day.

That win ensured that South Korea would finish first in Group D during their magical - albeit highly controversial - run to the semi-finals, while Portugal were eliminated from the group stage with that loss and will no doubt be out for a slice of revenge here.