Roberto Mancini Already Knows How To Score A Goal Against South Korea

Roberto Mancini, coach of Saudi Arabia (doc. AFC).

JAKARTA - Saudi Arabia faced South Korea in the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup at the Education Stadium, Al Rayyan, Tuesday, January 30, 2024.

The Green Falcons and Taegeuk Warriors meeting was the fiercest party in the last 16 than any other match.

In addition to bringing together two strong Asian teams, the clashes between the two are also a duel for two of the world's top coaches, Roberto Mancini and Jurgen Klinsmann.

Saudi Arabia is more confident because they are favored. The hobby of Mancini's foster children cannot be separated from their slick appearance in the group stage.

They qualified for the knockout round as winners of Group F from two wins and one draw. Saudi Arabia also conceded only one goal and scored four goals.

Things are different from South Korea's stumbling in Group E. Jurgen Klinsmann's students only locked up the group's runners-up to qualify for the knockout stages.

Taegeuk Warriors only managed to win one win and the remaining two matches ended in a draw.

Although South Korea's performance was not impressive, Mancini remained vigilant. Moreover, the opponent has a player like captain Son Heung-min and several names defend European top clubs.

"Our preparations are the same as other matches, there are no changes. We are fighting one of the best teams in this tournament. Not only attackers, the whole team is also good. They have speed and quality with players in Europe." "They have good quality, have great experience. For us, it will be very important to play as a team. I think we have improved rapidly in the last few months and we are positive," said Mancini on the AFC page.

Mancini further revealed that he already has a formula against South Korea. Group stage matches are the material for the analysis.

South Korea became the most fragile team in defense for conceding six goals.

"South Korea is a very good team, despite conceding six goals in the group stage. However, it doesn't change their strength because they have very good players."

"They scored a lot of goals. If they (many) conceded then maybe we could know when we attacked, we had a chance to score goals," said Mancini again.

The winner of the Saudi vs South Korean Arabian match has been waiting for Australia in the 2023 Asian Cup quarter-finals. Socceroos stepped into the last eight after overthrowing the Indonesian national team 4-0.