Sas - a doubt for Turkey. (Allsport)

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Turkey boss Senol Gunes has admitted his dream was to see his side pitted against co-hosts South Korea in the World Cup final rather than in Saturday's third place play-off match.

The Turks, who were appearing in only their second World Cup, missed out on a place in the final after losing 1-0 to Brazil in the semi-finals, while the Koreans went down to Germany by the same scoreline in their last four clash.

And Gunes, who has received widespread praise for guiding the unfancied Turks to the semi-finals for the first time in their history, believes Sunday's showpiece would have been a more colourful affair had his team and the Koreans made it.

"We [Turkey and South Korea] are two countries who brought colour and sound to the World Cup," said Gunes.

"My wish was to see these two teams in the final. The cup would have been more colourful, but sadly we will play the third place game."

Despite missing out on the final Gunes is not downhearted and he feels his players have put Turkish football firmly on the world map with their astonishing run to the semis.

"Losing doesn't mean the end of the world," he said.

"The important thing was to gain experience and develop our football - we did that.

"We are happy to be in Korea. We started it here and we will end it here. We added to our historical friendship with Korea here, we got even closer as two nations. This was a tournament like a feast and we enjoyed it a lot."

"We brought a different colour and a breath of fresh air to the cup and we didn't see any other team better than us.

"We didn't give up when we lost, we wanted to become a world team and we did.

"We made heroes out of people who gave us hope. We gave hope and pride to our people. We wanted to be the gentleman of the pitch and we did that.

"Now, we want to become the third in the world."

The third-placed play-off is historically regarded as nothing more than a sideshow with the final looming only a day later, but Gunes is determined to finish on a high.

"To become third in the world would give us joy, we want to win," added Gunes.

"South Korea has more experience in World Cups compared to us and they are a young team who like to press their opponents and spoil them from playing.

"They will want to use the home advantage. We are experiencing some physical and mental fatigue and this may affect us in Saturday's game."

Winger Hasan Sas and midfielder Ergun Pembe are the only players doubtful for the match but Gunes will wait until the last minute to pick his team.

He said: "Ergun Pembe and Hasan Sas have injury problems but we don't know how serious they are. We will see their condition in the last training session."