Sweden beats South Korea thanks to video-reviewed penalty

Grizzled centre-half Andreas Granqvist duly obliged, with the Scandinavians going on to win 1-0.

Sweden is led by captain and central defender Andreas Granqvist and also has attacking midfielder Emil Forsberg in the starting lineup on Monday.

“I knew he (Granqvist) would kick the ball after checking the direction, but it didn’t go well as I planned”, he said. “We got the penalty and then we were just fighting until the end”.

The Swedes were awarded the penalty after referee Joel Aguilar consulted a video screen on the sideline following an appeal by the Swedish players. Aguilar had originally waved play on after South Korea substitute Kim Min-woo slid into a tackle and collided with Viktor Claesson.

When pressed about the call again during his post-match press conference, Shin said, “I accept the decision”.

He also completely missed the penalty but was rescued by the VAR system, which has so far proved to be completely correct – much to Swedish delight.

South Korea took on Sweden on Monday and were looking to capitalise on Germany’s shock defeat to Mexico the day before.

Before Granqvist’s penalty, Sweden showed most of the attacking intent at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium.

“We evaluated all of our goalkeepers and we felt like with the very tall Swedish players, we thought Jo Hyeon-woo would be the best and we thought he’d be a little bit quicker”, Shin said.

Hwang had a golden opportunity to make up for his previous indiscretion with a header in second half injury time, but in a game that looked on paper a must-win game for both these teams, Sweden scraped the result. Jo, who plays with Daegu FC in the top-flight K League 1, is nicknamed “Dae Gea”, which combines the name of his club, Daegu, and Spain’s star goalkeeper David De Gea.

South Korea XI: Cho Hyun-woo, Lee Yong, Kim Young-gwon, Jan Hyun-soo, Park Joo-ho; Kim Shin-wook, Koo Ja-cheol, Ki Sung-yueng, Lee Jae-sung; Hwang Hee-chan, Son Heung-min.

Sweden head coach Janne Andersson insists Zlatan Ibrahimovic has not had any influence on the team’s preparations for their World Cup opener with South Korea.

Andrea Granqvist (Sweden): Touted as Sweden’s key player pre-tournament, the 33-year-old is known for his defensive ability rather than his composure in front of goal.

Asked about his thoughts on how his team will fare against Mexico, Shin said, “The ball is round”.

“This is something small that has been turned into something much bigger because usually our information about our opponents comes from us watching them play matches”. Mexico will have a cutting edge that South Korea lacked giving Andersson’s men a lot more to worry about.

South Korea will be hoping to massively improve on their 2014 World Cup experience, in which they managed to take just one point in the group stage.