South Korea hit five past 10-man Sri Lanka

Republic of Korea’s Shin-Wook Kim scores their first goal

By Susil Premalal

South Korea defeated Sri Lanka 5-0 in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier played at the Goyang Stadium in South Korea yesterday. 

Ranked 39th in the FIFA world ranking, South Korea surged to a comfortable 3-0 lead in the first half, as Sri Lanka failed to make an impression.

Sri Lanka has never won or drawn against South Korea in three previous matches against the Asian giants. The Koreans played patiently and stuck to their game plan, completely outplaying the Lankans who tried to counter attack in the first half but were then forced to play defensively in the second half after being reduced to 10 men when Asikur Rahaman was shown a second yellow card for a blatant hand ball in the 57th minute.

Kim Shin-wook opened the scoring for South Korea, scoring in the 15th minute, before converting a 43rd minute penalty, with Lee Dong-gyeong scoring in between in the 22nd minute, giving the Koreans a 3-0 half-time lead.  
Hwan Hee-chan (53’) and Jung Sang-bin (77’) added two goals after the break. 

This is South Korea’s fourth win against Sri Lanka having won 6-0 in 1979, 4-0 in 1986 and 8-0 in 2019.
Sri Lanka failed to record a single win in their six Group H matches, officially bowing out of the competition scoring two goals and conceding 23. 

The two goals came in Sri Lanka’s last match against Lebanon, where they went down fighting 3-2. 
In the first leg clashes of this second round of qualifying, Sri Lanka lost to Turkmenistan 2-0, South Korea 8-0, Lebanon 3-0 while in the second leg they lost to Turkmenistan 2-0, Lebanon 3-2 and South Korea 5-0.