Teams

Korea Republic experienced few issues in qualifying, and though they ended up in second spot behind Iran in Group A, they qualified for their 10th straight World Cup finals with 3 games to spare. Since their incredible semi final appearance back in 2002 when they hosted the tournament, Korea have been knocked out in the group stages in three of the last four tournaments, including last time out in Russia. But their final match of the group stages will go down in history after they defeated defending champions Germany by two stoppage time goals to nil – Mexican fans were celebrating the result in front of the Korean embassy back home as the result allowed Mexico to progress to the next round of the tournament.