Seon-Hong Hwang, who competed in the 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-23 (U-23) Asian Cup, decorated the first match of the group stage with a complete victory.
The Korean men's U-23 national team, led by coach Hwang Seon-hong, defeated Malaysia 4-1 by scoring consecutive goals from Lee Sang-min and Kim Tae-hwan and multi-goal Cho Young-wook in the first group C match held at Lokomotiv Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan today (3rd). I hit it.
Korea, which won the championship in the previous 2020 tournament, participated in under the supervision of Kim Hak-beom, is challenging for the second consecutive championship.
The U-23 Asian Cup final begins with a group stage in which 16 countries are divided into 4 groups of 4 countries.
South Korea, who lightly won 3 points in the first match, will play the second leg against Vietnam, led by coach Oh-kyun Gong, on the 5th, and will play the final group match against Thailand on the 8th.
Manager Hwang Seon-hong made all three European players start the day, including Lee Kang-in, who was first selected after taking office.
Hwang Seon-Hong-Ho headed to the decisive battlefield without even trying to match hands in Korea before the finals, but they quickly worked together through actual combat.
Korea took the lead with 70%-30% of the ball possession that day, and in the number of shots, 28 (10 on-target shots)-8 (2 on-target shots), driving the opponent.
Korea scored their first goal in the 31st minute of the first half.
Lee Sang-min finished off a corner kick from Lee Kang-in with a header to score the opening goal.
Korea, leading 1-0, replaced Umji-seong with Oh Se-hoon at the start of the second half to aim for an additional goal, but the second goal came in three minutes in the second half.
Taehwan Kim caught the ball that flowed after the corner kick and finished with a relentless left footed mid-range shot from outside the penalty box.
In the 21st minute of the second half, Korea continued the offensive by excluding Jeong Sang-bin and Lee Kyu-hyuk, and adding Cho Young-wook and Cho Hyun-taek.
As the match came to a close, Malaysia took advantage of Korea's negligence to score a goal.
In the 38th minute of the second half, Nick Akif Shahiran pierced a pass from behind, and Mukairi Ajmal caught it and shook the net with a right-footed shot.
Then, Korea also raised its concentration again.
Korea took responsibility for the goal after Cho Young-wook opened the scoring in the 43rd minute of the second half, and took responsibility for the key goal 4 minutes later.
(Photo = provided by the Korea Football Association, Yonhap News)