Preview: South Korea vs Palestine – Prediction, team news, lineups

South Korea are ready, Palestine at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Thursday on the first matchday of the third round of Asian World Cup qualification.

The hosts reached this round as group winners of the second round, while the guests narrowly prevailed as group runners-up.

Game Preview

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South Korea will be looking to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the 11th consecutive year when they begin the third round of Asian qualifying against Palestine on Thursday.

The last time they failed to qualify for a World Cup was in 1982. Since then they have been eliminated in the group stage of seven of the tournaments that have followed, twice in the round of 16 and in 2002, when they co-hosted the tournament with Japan, they achieved a fantastic fourth place.

Former Manager Jurgen Klinsmannwho succeeded Paulo Bento At the end of the 2022 World Cup, he had a difficult time as coach of South Korea and was eventually sacked after the extremely disappointing elimination against Jordan in the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup.

Hong Myong Bo was finally hired five months after Klinsmann’s dismissal and the new head coach is currently preparing for his first game as coach, when the national team faces Palestine.

Myong-Bo’s team have an attractive group in the Asian World Cup qualifiers, as they will face Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Palestine, and are expected to finish comfortably in the top two and qualify directly for the 2026 World Cup.

South Korea are also expected to secure a comfortable win on Thursday against Palestine, a team that narrowly advanced to this stage for the first time in its history after finishing two points ahead of Lebanon in second place.

Makram Daboubwho has led the team since May 2021, is already incredibly happy with his history-making Palestinian team and hopes that the team can make even more history by qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in its history.

The visitors lost their last match against Australia by a clear 0-5, a result they will definitely want to avoid against a similarly strong South Korean team.

South Korea World Cup Qualifiers – Asian Form:

South Korea Form (All Competitions):

Palestine World Cup Qualifiers – Asia Form:

Palestine form (All competitions):

Team News

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Since this is Myong-Bo’s debut as head coach of the South Korean national team, the selection for his first starting lineup remains quite unpredictable.

talisman Heung-min Son will almost certainly be part of a strong attack force alongside Hee-Chan Hwang And Kang-in Leewhile Kim Min-jae will probably be used in defense.

As for Palestine, a heavy 5-0 loss to Australia in their last match extended their winless streak to two matches and Daboub may decide to return to the team that last won a match against Bangladesh.

Oday Dabbagh is undoubtedly the star of the Palestinian team and the striker is expected to keep his place in the team and lead the attacking line against South Korea.

Possible starting eleven for South Korea:
Yep; Moon-hwan Kim, Kim Min-jae, Young-Gwon Kim, Jin-su Kim; In-Beom Hwang, Paik, Jae-sung Lee; Kang-in Lee, Hee-Chan Hwang, son

Possible starting eleven for Palestine:
Hamada; Battat, Termanini, Mahajna, Khalil; Kharoub, Rashid, Warda; Qumbor, Dabbagh, Qunbar

We think: South Korea 4-0 Palestine

South Korea are clear favourites to win this match as their squad offers significantly more quality and we predict a comfortable victory for the hosts.

Click here to see a data analysis of the most likely outcomes, scores and more for this match.

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