- 2018 FIFA World Cup (Group F)
- Sweden 1-0 South Korea
For the third time at the on-going 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) was at the fore front of penalty decision when Sweden overcame South Korea 1-0 in a Group F match at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Russia on Monday.
Andreas Granqvist guessed correctly and easily converted the kick in a game Sweden mostly dominated.
The penalty arose after Sweden’s Viktor Claesson went down under the challenge from substitute Kim Min-Woo.
This was a perfect winning start in their first World Cup for 12 years now.
The victory was vital to Sweden. Mexico grabbed a surprise 3 points from Germany in this group on Sunday, and almost everyone thinks Germany will come roaring back. That leaves a narrow margin for these two teams to advance.
Sweden controlled the game for the most part, but both teams played strong defense, and a goal from open play always seemed unlikely.
South Korea missed a good opportunity to equalise when Hwang Hee-chan headed wide inside the added minutes before the game climaxed.
Team Line-ups
Sweden XI: Olsen (G.K), Lustig, Granqvist, Augustinsson, Larsson, Ekdal, Berg, Forsberg, Claesson, Jansson, Toivonen
South Korea XI: Cho Hyun-Woo (G.K), Lee Yong, Park Joo-Ho, Son Heung-Min, Lee Seung-Woo, Hwang Hee-Chan, Koo Ja-Cheol, Ki Sung-yueng, Lee Jae-Sung, Kim Young-Gwon, Jang Hyun-Soo