After South Korea’s 4-1 loss to Brazil in the World Cup semifinals on Monday, Paulo Bento announced that he is resigning as the Korean team’s head coach. However, he insisted that the decision had already been made months earlier and was unrelated to the events in Qatar.
FIFA World Cup: Paulo Bento, the coach of South Korea, resigns following Brazil’s loss
We simply need to focus on the future going forward, and it won’t involve the Korean Republic’s national team, from this point on “During the presser following the game, he added.
It was a decision that was made in September, and I thanked the players and the president for everything they’ve done. I just told them about it. Having managed them for more than four years makes me proud. I’ll now take a nap and wait to see what happens.”
Bento expressed his extreme happiness at working with a Korean team that made it to the knockout round for just the third time as well as his specific satisfaction with the manner in which they achieved so.
Brazil was deserving of the victory, and while I’m disappointed in the outcome, the development of Korean football over the past four years has been extraordinary “The former Portugal midfielder, whose final international match as a player was a loss to Korea at the 2002 World Cup, made the statement.
The team’s quick turnaround left them low on energy, but they stuck to their game plan until the very end, and I was very proud of that. “We were very bold in how we approached the game today,” said the coach.”
Bento had every right to be pleased with his players, who inflicted on the World Cup favourites more quality chances in 90 minutes than they had in their previous three games combined.
Despite being on the receiving end of a whirlwind Brazilian performance that resulted in four beautifully created goals inside the first 40 minutes, Korea displayed admirable tenacity and spirit to keep chasing, trying, and creating goals. They may have snuck into the last 16 on goals scored, but they did so with remarkable spirit.
To show for their meagre attacking attempts in the first half as Brazil ran riot, Bento’s team just had one stinging shot by Hwang Hee-chan, excellently saved by Alisson.
With their heads held high, they left the field after Paik Seung-ho scored an incredible consolation goal from 25 yards out.
The group stage of our performance was excellent, “stated Bento. “I don’t apologise for saying it again, but we could and should have defeated Ghana (in a game they lost 3-2), but nonetheless, I’m happy and proud.”