The only previous meeting between Korea Republic and Portugal came in the 2002 Fifa World Cup, with Korea winning 1-0 on home soil in a group stage match. The result saw them win their group, while eliminating Portugal from the competition.
Portugal’s only defeat in five previous meetings with Asian sides at the Fifa World Cup came against Korea Republic in 2002, with the Portuguese winning three and drawing one of their other four games.
Korea Republic have won just five of their 23 Fifa World Cup matches against European sides (D6 L12), with each of those five wins coming against a different nation (Poland, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Germany).
Korea Republic have lost five of their last seven World Cup matches (W1 D1), as many as they had in their previous 16 (W5 D6). They're looking to win their third group game for just the third time at the tournament, previously doing so in 2002 (vs Portugal) and 2018 (vs Germany).
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Portugal have already qualified for the knockout stages of the 2022 World Cup, beating Ghana and Uruguay so far. They are looking to win all three group stage matches for just a third time, also doing so in 1966 and 2006.
Portugal are yet to lose a match at the World Cup when they’ve scored the first goal (P18 W15 D3), scoring first without losing more than any other nation in World Cup history.
Portugal have scored a penalty in each of their two group stage games at this year’s World Cup (Cristiano Ronaldo v Ghana, Bruno Fernandes v Uruguay). No team have ever scored a penalty in each of their three group stage matches in the World Cup.
Jo Gyu-Seong scored twice for Korea Republic against Ghana last time out, accounting for 33 per cent of his total goals for the national side (2/6). No player has ever scored three goals in a single edition of the World Cup for the Asian side.
Through the first two matchdays of the 2022 World Cup, no central midfielder made more progressive carries (28) or created more chances following a carry (3) than Portugal’s Bernardo Silva.
Bruno Fernandes has been involved in four of Portugal’s five goals at this year’s World Cup (2 goals, 2 assists), scoring twice in their 2-0 win over Uruguay. Fernandes is only the second player this century to have registered multiple goals and assists in a team’s first two group stage matches, along with Karim Benzema for France in 2014.