South Korea coach Paulo Bento was delighted with his side’s performance against Uruguay as the team played out a goalless draw and urged fans not to concentrate too much on the fitness of star player Son Heung-min.
Uruguay and South Korea made numerous inroads but failed to convert it into goals in the Group H clash in the FIFA World Cup 2022 here at the Education City Stadium. South Korea captain Heung-Min Son played with a face mask after suffering a fractured eye socket earlier this month, but the Tottenham Hotspur forward was unable to have much of an impact on the game.
South Korea boss Paolo Bento said that Son would require time to reach peak fitness after his recent facial injury after the Spurs forward struggled to make an impact against Uruguay.
“Son is a player who, up until his injury, had continuous rhythm and good performance,” said Bento. He had a serious injury, he was inactive for a considerable time. He only joined the team in the last few days. After an injury and being exposed to more aggressive games, it is natural it will take him some step to re-adapt,” Bento was quoted as saying by Skysports.
Bento was particularly pleased that his side were able to match Uruguay’s levels of aggression, adding: “That was definitely one of the positives. We knew our opponent played intense football and we needed to up our game and we managed to do that in the first half, in particular.”
The Uruguay team went on to hit the post twice but failed to get past South Korea’s defence. The Koreans started the game with plenty of pressing in the first half. Heung-min Son floated one corner in but Uruguay cleared it eventually. The Asian team was in charge.