South Korea aim to repeat history

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.’’