South Korea and Switzerland advance to the knockout round of 2022 World Cup

Hee Chang Hwang (Twitter)

There were more unexpected results on Friday at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The most significant surprise was the fact that South Korea upset Portugal on goals from Young-gwon Kim and Hee-chan Hwang by a score of 2-1. Kim plays for South Korea’s Ulsan Hyundai, and Hwang plays for England’s Wolverhampton.

With the win at Education City Stadium, South Korea improved to a record of one win, one loss and one draw for four points. They also leapfrogged Uruguay and Ghana into second place in Group H. It was actually heartbreak for Uruguay, who beat Ghana 2-0 on Friday for their first win at the 2022 World Cup. The 2-0 win was not enough, as Uruguay needed one more goal in their win over Ghana to advance to the round of 16. South Korea and Uruguay had identical records of 1-1-1 and had the same goals for and against ratio of zero. However, South Korea advanced because they scored four goals, while Uruguay only scored two goals at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

In Group G, Switzerland advanced to the round of 16, after a 3-2 win over Serbia. The Switzerland goals were from Chicago Fire winger Xherdan Shaqiri, Ligue 1 Monaco’s Breel Embolo, and Nottingham Forest’s Remo Frueler. Switzerland improved to a record of two wins and one loss for six points and had the same number of points as first place Brazil. However, Brazil, which lost 1-0 to Cameroon on Friday, gets first place because they defeated Switzerland 1-0 on Monday.

The round of 16 matches are now determined. The Netherlands will play the United States, Senegal plays England, Argentina faces Australia, France faces Poland, Japan plays Croatia, Morocco plays Spain, Brazil plays South Korea and Portugal faces Switzerland.