South Korea and Iraq will commence their World Cup 2022 qualifying process on Thursday as Group A gets underway at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
The Reds head into the game on the back of three victories and as one of the favourites to qualify from the group, while Iraq will be hoping to reach their second World Cup tournament.
Match preview
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After failing to get out of the group stage during the World Cup in Russia, despite defeating Germany 2-1 in their final game, South Korea will be hoping to go further in Qatar next year.
However, in order to reach that point, they must qualify from Group A and their first test comes in the form of Iraq this Thursday.
The Reds have won their last three games comfortably, with two 5-0 victories being followed by a 2-1 win over Lebanon in their most recent outing.
While South Korea will play Lebanon once again in this qualifying group next week, they will be aiming for a perfect start against the Usood Al-Rafidan.
The previous meeting between the two teams actually took place back in 2017 and it ended in a goalless draw between them, and considering the fact Iraq have kept three clean sheets in their previous six games, the team is clearly still defensively sound.
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After Srecko Katanec left his role as Iraq manager in the summer, this fixture will mark the first time that Dick Advocaat has been in charge of the nation and the pressure will be on to deliver immediate results.
Iraq have not qualified for the World Cup since 1986, which was the only time the country have played in the tournament where they were defeated in all three group games.
However, with the international experience that Advocaat has, there is hope and belief amongst fans that the nation could qualify this time around to participate in Qatar.
Iraq do come into the game on the back of a 1-0 loss against Iran, yet prior to that, they had built up a seven-game unbeaten streak, which is the type of form that makes them a serious threat within this group.
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Team News
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After scoring in his last appearance for Tottenham Hotspur and South Korea, Son Heung-min will be one of the stars on display in this game, with the Premier League attacker being the main danger man for his country, despite being left out during the Olympic Games.
However, he will be joined by new Wolverhampton Wanderers signing Hwang Hee-chan, who is another great threat, with the Reds boss Paulo Bento having named 25 players for the upcoming fixtures.
Thursday will mark the first time that Advocaat has picked a starting lineup for Iraq, therefore there could be some major changes from what has come previously.
However, there is also a chance that he will look to keep things similar to what has been picked recently, especially since Iraq have been in such fine form as of late.
South Korea possible starting lineup:
Jo Hyeon-woo; Kim Tae-hwan, Kim Min-jae, Lee Yong, Lee Ki-je, Nam Tee-hee, Jung Woo-young, Kwon Chang-hoon; Son Heung-min, Hwang Ui-jo, Hwang Hee-chan
Iraq possible starting lineup:
Hassan; Qaseem, Natiq, Khalaf, Adnan; Hadi, Resan, Wasem, Al-Saedi; Ali, Hussein
We say: South Korea 1-0 Iraq
Iraq have been defensively strong in previous games, therefore they are not going to be easy to score against, which is what will make this a closely contested fixture.
However, with a slight edge in quality and experience there should be enough within the South Korean squad to pick up the first three points of the group.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a South Korea win with a probability of 52.61%. A draw had a probability of 24% and a win for Iraq had a probability of 23.39%.
The most likely scoreline for a South Korea win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.82%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.7%) and 2-0 (9.22%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.39%), while for a Iraq win it was 0-1 (6.69%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 6.4% likelihood.
