{"id":9091,"date":"2023-11-21T22:12:12","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/21\/son-scores-twice-as-south-korea-outclasses-china-in-world-cup-qualifier\/"},"modified":"2023-11-21T22:12:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T16:42:12","slug":"son-scores-twice-as-south-korea-outclasses-china-in-world-cup-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/21\/son-scores-twice-as-south-korea-outclasses-china-in-world-cup-qualifier\/","title":{"rendered":"Son scores twice as South Korea outclasses China in World Cup qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skipper Son Heung-min scored a brace as South Korea made it two wins from two games in 2026 World Cup qualifying with a 3-0 victory away in China on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Son silenced a sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 in Shenzhen with two goals in the first half, the first a penalty and the second a clever header from a corner just before half-time.<\/p>\n

South Korea wrapped the game up in the dying minutes through a bullet header by Jung Seung-hyun – from a Son set-piece – and tops Group C with a perfect six points.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers AFC points table<\/a><\/p>\n

Jurgen Klinsmann\u2019s side thumped Singapore 5-0 last week to begin their qualifying campaign in style, and they were in much the same mood against an outclassed China.<\/p>\n

With attacker Son looking in the groove, the Koreans dominated and were ahead after 11 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Hwang Hee-chan was brought down in the box, and Tottenham Hotspur\u2019s Son duly stroked home the penalty.<\/p>\n

It was all South Korea. Forward Cho Gue-sung headed just over the bar when unmarked from a corner, and Son stung the palms of overworked goalkeeper Yan Junling.<\/p>\n

Hwang In-beom\u2019s direct free-kick fizzed just past Yan\u2019s post midway through the half, but China should have been level three minutes before the break with their first real chance.<\/p>\n

South Korean full-back Lee Ki-je was dispossessed and Liu Binbin crossed for Tan Long, but the Chinese forward\u2019s first-time snap shot went narrowly wide.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW: India vs Qatar World Cup qualifier LIVE<\/a><\/p>\n

They were to regret it on the stroke of half-time.<\/p>\n

Son, who had been denied moments earlier by the legs of Yan, leapt unmarked from a corner to direct his deft header back across the China goal and into the far corner.<\/p>\n

South Korea, which reached the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup, should have gone 3-0 ahead soon after the restart, but China defender Zhu Chenjie cleared off the line before Jung put the game to bed late on.<\/p>\n

In other Asian World Cup qualifiers, North Korea thrashed Myanmar 6-1 away, and Tajikistan won in Pakistan by the same scoreline.<\/p>\n

The top two from each of the nine groups in Asian qualifying for the World Cup in North America will progress through to the final qualifying stage.<\/p>\n

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\nComments\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Son silenced a sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 in Shenzhen with two goals in the first half, the first a penalty and the second a clever header from a corner just before half-time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-sport-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}