It's the Azzurri next for Hiddink's men (Allsport).
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South Korea coach Guus Hiddink may be playing down the relevance, but there is
one bit of black-and-white footage which is in danger of being worn out in the
Far East over the next couple of days.
Hiddink's men face Italy in the World Cup second round on Tuesday, reviving
memories of when arch-rivals North Korea shocked the mighty Azzurri in 1966.
The North Koreans wrote themselves into footballing folklore with the 1-0
victory, booking their place in the quarter-finals.
South Korea now have a chance to emulate that feat.
"There a lot of talk about the North Korea result over Italy, but that was
many years ago and does not really have any relevance to this match," said
Hiddink.
Those in Korea may disagree with the Dutchman as the clip of Pak Do-Ik's
historic goal has already made several appearances on the country's sports
programmes.
"After the match, we were all crying," recounted Pak. "We knew we had
achieved what had been asked of us, we had won for the fatherland."
Their fairytale was eventually ended in the next round when they lost bravely
to Eusebio's Portugal 5-3, despite scoring the first three goals.
But the giantkilling act at Middlesbrough's old Ayresome Park had already
introduced Asian football to the world.
At this tournament, the South Korean and Japanese co-hosts have whipped up a
footballing frenzy in their respective countries with some sparkling
performances.
Both teams topped their groups, with Korea finishing their first-round
campaign by beating Euro 2000 semi-finalists Portugal, only their second ever
win in the finals.
They picked up their first in the opening match against Poland, ending a
sequence of 14 World Cup finals games without a win.
Now all eyes turn towards the three-time champions Italy, and their
multi-talented squad including Christian Vieri, Paolo Maldini and Francesco
Totti.
South Korea, though, are now hoping history can repeat itself.
Peter Velappen, general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation, said:
"Everybody who follows football knows about Pak's goal and how it put Italy out
of the World Cup.
"Now all these years down the road, South Korea have the chance to emulate
North Korea and knock Italy out."
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