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It’s the second game of Group H action as Russia take on South Korea from the Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 8:00am (AEST).
Russia are playing in their first World Cup Finals since 2002, and they qualified in style.
Taking part in UEFA Qualifying Group F, they beat out group favourites Portugal to book the automatic ticket to Brazil 2014. Aleksandr Kerzhakov led their qualification goal scoring with five goals overall, while Aleksandr Kokorin also pitched in with four.
South Korea had to get to Brazil the hard way. They came second in Group A of AFC qualifying, but only managed to beat out Uzbekistan on goal differential. Lee Keun-Ho was the top scorer for the Korea Republic, tallying three markers during qualifying.
Russia will be looking to bad-boy Roman Shirokov to play well in these World Cup Finals. If he fires, they’ll be a very tough team to beat.
Also important for the Russians are CSKA Moscow defensive pairing Vasiliy Berezutskiy and Sergei Ignashevich. The two centre-backs combined to restrict opponents to only five goals in 10 qualifying matches.
South Korea have seen their golden generation pass, as they had a fourth place finish in their home World Cup of 2002.
For the modern side, Park Chu-Young is the key player. If he can show any of the form he had leading up to the 2010 World Cup finals, he will be a handful for any defence. His recent form has been poor at best, and a misfiring Park will surely see South Korea head for a timid exit from their group.
This game seems fairly straightforward on paper, but World Cups have a tendency of throwing the unexpected at you. I’m not brave enough to pick South Korea, but I think they’ll give this one a real shake.
Prediction: Russia 2-1
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