Hiddink - has worked miracles for South Korea (Allsport)

By Paul Walker, PA Sport, Daejeon

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Miracle worker Guus Hiddink has revealed how he turned Korean golden boy Ahn Jung-hwan into a World Cup legend.

The Perugia star's golden-goal winner against Italy means his name will go down in history alongside that of Pak Doo Ik, the North Korean whose goal knocked the Italians out in 1966.

The Azzurri were famously pelted with tomatoes when they arrived home, and they will certainly have red faces this time.

But Hiddink admits it was not long ago that he told Italy's conqueror "he was not fit enough".

The end product of that dressing down was Ahn's sweet winner in their second-round match yesterday, a fine recovery after an earlier penalty miss.

The Italians, whose super confidence of reaching the final in Yokohama had been growing daily, were swept aside on a wave of euphoria in Daejeon.

Korea's 2-1 success has now set up a quarter-final clash in Gwangju with Spain that will bring a disbelieving nation to a standstill once again.

And pin-up boy Ahn has emerged as the country's talisman, the David Beckham of Korea.

But Dutchman Hiddink was not his biggest fan when World Cup preparations started a few months back.

He was critical of the Italian-based striker's attitude, condition and performances.

It led, says Hiddink, to "words" between player and coach and more than a few home truths.

Hiddink did not feel his top star was fit enough and Ahn did not like being told.

Now his name will go down in World Cup folklore alongside Pak, whose team captivated English fans 36 years ago.

The bottom line was that Ahn, who has just signed a year's extension to his Perugia contract, ending reported interest from Chelsea, felt he could breeze back from Serie A, go straight into the team and waltz his way to glory.

Hiddink though had other ideas.

"Ahn did not start the early matches in this tournament, but has now started to do so," he said.

"It shows that he has learned to play more than 45 minutes or one hour, now he has strong stamina.

"It means he has learned very well the situation of a few months ago when he was told he had to work hard and achieve a good physical condition.

"I was critical of him but always with respect, not with tricky things. He came to me then and we had words that are really best kept between player and coach.

"I was tough on him and now he has improved. But it was always with great respect, from his side to me and from my side to him."

Hiddink has had quite an impact in Korea, with a banner amongst the sea of red shirts in the crowd proclaiming, "Hiddink for president".

His side are the first Asian side ever to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup and now he must prepare them to face some of the players he coached during spells at Real Madrid, Valencia and Real Betis.

Hiddink said: "I like my team to be greedy and hungry for the next achievement.

"Our aim was at first to be competitive in the World Cup. Secondly we wanted, please, just one victory. Then when we had that to try to get into the second round.

"From there it's fantasy, the next aim was the last eight and we have achieved that now. The players know, though, that we must return to work and be down to earth and go onto the next stage in Gwangju and face the challenge of Spain.

"Spain have a little advantage with two days more rest than us, but I am looking forward to it very much because Spain is in my heart and I like to play against lads who were in my team in Madrid."

He added: "I am very satisfied with the outcome, what we have achieved is beyond all our aims.

"The players showed how to react following the early penalty miss by Ahn, and they got to grips with a world-class team after an agitated start.

"There was a great capacity to recover after we did not have control against a power of world football like Italy.

"We played more and more advanced football, we were no longer intimidated. We were too deep and had to close the gaps. This is a tremendous achievement for Korean football."

Korea started well but went behind to a Christian Vieri header and for long spells it looked like a typically clinical, professional Italian display would see them home.

But Korea forced extra time with Seol Ki-hyeon's 88th-minute equaliser and Italy cracked up, having Francesco Totti sent off for diving.

Korea grabbed then their chance to overpower 10 men with Ahn's golden-goal winner.

Hiddink said: "We have had some bad luck with penalties in this tournament, but we have practised, and practised hard, particularly Ahn.

"But you cannot practice in the exact conditions, you can never recreate the same circumstances that you find in a match.

"Then we went 1-0 down and normally you cannot win anymore against Italy after that.

"If Italians have an advantage it's very difficult to create chances against them. If you attack too much then they catch you out.

"But we took some risks, in the end we had five attackers on the pitch and I would always like to take some risks and lose 2-0 than not try at all."

Such has been the rapid progress of Korea, carried by their remarkable fans on a wave of emotion, that Hiddink added: "This would not have been possible for us two months ago.

"Then I started the real hard work with the team. For the last four months we have been working with them on their fitness every day.

"This team have learned so much in just a couple of weeks, that is incredible."