Women's U20 soccer, Thailand won 2-1 overtime... Advance to the semifinals of the Asian Cup → Finalization of the World Cup has been confirmed

*This content was translated by AI.

• Re-confrontation with North Korea on the 15th

The South Korean U-20 women's national soccer team managed to confirm its advance to the 2026 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup finals.

South Korea, led by head coach Park Yoon-jung, won 2-1 after a close game against host Thailand at the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-20 Women's Asian Cup at Thammasat Stadium in Patum Thani, Thailand on the 12th (Korea time).

With the victory, South Korea qualified for the 2026 FIFA Poland U-20 Women's World Cup, which will be given to the semifinals of the tournament. It will be held in Poland in September.

It is the third consecutive time and the eighth time in history that South Korea will advance to the U-20 Women's World Cup finals after the 2022 Costa Rica Games and the 2024 Colombia Games. The highest record ever was third at the 2010 German competition, where Ji So-yeon and Kim Hye-ri (Suwon FC Women) participated.

In the semifinals of this tournament, however, South Korea will face North Korea again on the 15th, which is the defending champion and South Korea lost 0-5 in the group stage earlier.

South Korea lost to North Korea 0-32 in the final Group B match on the 9th and was pushed to the quarterfinals after being overwhelmingly behind North Korea in the number of shots.

If they beat North Korea, they will reach the final for the first time in 13 years and five tournaments since the 2013 tournament, and face the winner of the China-Japan match in the final. South Korea has been eliminated from the semifinals for the last two consecutive tournaments, including third place in the 2019 Thailand tournament and fourth place in the 2024 Uzbekistan tournament.

South Korea, which had been looking for opportunities by digging into the side from the beginning of the game, broke the balance of 0 in the 16th minute of the first half. Nam Seung-eun (Alvirex Niigata) connected a high corner kick with a header to shake the net.

After that, South Korea tried to score an additional goal, but it did not come to fruition, as the opponent's goalkeeper's wrong-hit ball was missed toward the empty goal.

Rather, he allowed a threatening shot to the opponent in the counterattack at the end of the first half, but fortunately, he breathed a sigh of relief after being hit by the side net.

South Korea, which had a huge advantage in ball possession in the first half with 67.3 percent, but was equal in the number of shots 8-7, staged a fierce battle for leadership in the second half.

South Korea sought an additional goal to run away, but their last shot opportunity went nowhere, and on the contrary, Thailand's counterattack to balance it at home was formidable.

In the end, in the 27th minute of the second half, South Korea allowed a run through. Madison Castin's right foot shot, which dug into the back space on the right side, shook the Korean net as it was.

After losing the equalizer, South Korea tried to break the balance again, but eventually entered the overtime game without taking the lead again. While South Korea had only four shots in the second half, it allowed as many as 11 shots.

South Korea, which failed to break the balance in the first half of the extra period, dramatically broke the balance at the beginning of the second half of the extra period. When Park Joo-ha (Gyeongbuk National University) dug into the right side, the opposing goalkeeper came out empty of the goal. Park Joo-ah's shot from a long distance was sucked past the goalkeeper and into the empty goal.

South Korea, which has taken a valuable lead, put weight on stability and went on a "struggle" with the remaining 15 minutes. Thailand, which was in a tight spot, simply went on a general offensive, but South Korea kept the lead without losing its concentration.

There were no two equalizer runs against Thailand. In the end, the game ended with South Korea's 2-1 victory. It was the moment to confirm the advance to the semifinals of the Asian Cup and the World Cup finals.

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*This content was translated by AI.