South Korea secured a place in the Asian Olympic men’s football qualifying tournament Tuesday.
South Korea defeated Myanmar 3-0 to win Group B in the qualification event for the 2024 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup at Changwon Football Center in the southeastern city of Changwon.
Paik Sang-hoon scored in the first half, and a pair of subs, Jeon Byeong-gwan and Oh Jae-hyeok, contributed a goal apiece in the second half for the hosts, who finished the competition with two wins and a loss.
From this qualifying event, 11 group winners and the four best runners-up will advance to the U-23 Asian Cup, where they will be joined by the host country, Qatar.
The U-23 Asian Cup will also serve as the Asian qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The top three teams at the U-23 Asian Cup will earn direct tickets to France, and the fourth-ranked team will face Guinea, the fourth-placed team from the African qualifiers, in a playoff match.
South Korea will try to qualify for their 10th consecutive Olympics.
As the host nation, Qatar automatically qualified for the event. They ended up in Group B of the qualifying event here with South Korea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, but none of the Qatar matches counted toward the group tables.
Qatar defeated South Korea 2-0, Myanmar 6-0 and then Kyrgyzstan 1-0.
South Korea, after beating Kyrgyzstan 1-0 on Saturday, only needed a draw against Myanmar to advance to the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
South Korea got on the board on five minutes as Paik headed home Lee Tae-seok’s cross.
South Korea kept up the pressure on Myanmar, though headers by Eom Ji-sung in the eighth minute and Kim Sin-jin in the 18th minute both missed the target.
Eom had another opportunity in the 39th minute but his left-footed effort rolled wide of the net. Jeong Sang-bin had his last-gasp shot tipped away by goalkeeper Pyae Phyo Thu.
South Korea remained firmly in control of the match in the second half, but it wasn’t until the 85th minute that they doubled their lead.
Jeong drove deep into the box on the left side before centering the ball for Jeon, who redirected the ball with his left foot while falling to the pitch.
Oh then rounded out the scoring with a right-footed shot during added time.
Source: Yonhap News Agency