Group B Match Reviews

A goal at the start of each half saw South Korea start their world cup with an impressive win against Greece.

The Greek team seemed to be missing ambition, despite a rally in the second half, as they fell to the techinally excellent Korean team.

Result.....S.Korea 2 Greece 0

A vibrant Argentina team, with a superb Messi, dominated Nigeria and walked off the pitch with a 1-0 victory. Maradona's men push for the elusive second killer goal leaving themselves occassionally open at the back as the game became stretched. With some better finishing Nigeria could have made more of some good chances but the victory went to Argentina.

Result....Argentina 1 v 0 Nigeria

Argentina maintained their winning form with a 4-1 victory over South Korea. After taking a two goal lead the Korean's produced a shock goal just before half time. With only one goal between the teams at this stage, Korea pushed for an equaliser and came close on occassion. Then with Messi pulling the strings for Argentina, their decisive breaking football proved too much for the South Korean team as they added two more goals.

Result....South Korea 1 v 4 Argentina

Nigeria almost made it a Geek tragedy when they were holding the former European champions, at the Nelson Mandela Stadium. But yet another goalkeeping error allowed Greece to take the lead in the second half when a long shot was fumbled and fell into the path of an oncoming Greek striker.

Result....Greece 2 v 1 Nigeria

Greece played a tactical game against Argentina with a defensive but effective formation. For the first time in the competition Messi found himself being very well man-marked and conseqently his flashes of skill were limited for three quarters of the match.

The Greek team did have some chances on breaks and Samaras almost scored when his shot flashed just wide of the Argentine goal. However the Argentine team stuck to the task and managed to take the lead when Demichelles fired home in the 77th minute. As the Greek defence tired Messi managed a strike agains the Greek post, after a trademark run, late in the game before forcing a save from the Greek goalkeeper which was fired home by Palermo for the second Argentine goal.

Result....Greece 0 v 2 Argentina

In a match which both teams needed to win Nigeria took the lead after a great cross was slotted home while the Korean defence seemed to be ball watching. Nigeria almost extended their lead when a shot thumped against the post but the South Koreans drew level when a free kick was bundled into the Nigerian net.

The South Korean team took the lead in the when Park scored in the 49th minute. But a penalty allowed Nigeria to level with less than 20 minutes to play. After a nervous end to the game the Koreans hung on to book a place in the second round.

Result....Nigeria 2 v 2 South Korea