South Korea beat Czechia 2-1 at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara on June 11, 2026, in their second Group A match at the World Cup. Hwang In-beom equalized in the 67th minute and set up Oh Hyeon-gyu for the winner in the 80th, overturning Ladislav Krejci’s header for Czechia in the 59th minute. The result put South Korea level on points with the group leaders and left Czechia, back at a World Cup for the first time since 2006, with almost nothing to show for a performance that briefly suggested something better.
For long spells, the scoreline did not match the story.
South Korea finished with 2.30 expected goals to Czechia’s 0.82, won 62 percent of possession, and completed 469 passes to Czechia’s 230. Yet for most of the second hour, none of that mattered. Czechia were behind on every metric and ahead on the scoreboard, which tends to happen when one team is patient and the other is not.
Son Heung-min was the early problem South Korea could not solve. He fired over inside the first quarter hour, forced Matej Kovar into work from outside the box, then went close again before the break with a shot that drew a save and a follow-up cross nobody could finish. By halftime South Korea had created the better chances and had nothing to celebrate, which is its own kind of warning sign.
Here’s the thing Czechia barely needed to attack to lead.
Czechia managed only a handful of meaningful efforts all match, and their goal came from exactly the kind of moment that wins games without deserving to. Vladimir Coufal launched a long throw into the box in the 59th minute, and Krejci, left unmarked by a South Korean defense that had been comfortable for long stretches, headed it in from close range. It was Czechia’s first real chance of note. It was also enough, for a while, to make the entire first hour look irrelevant.
South Korea needed eight minutes to make it irrelevant again.
Lee Kang-in, central to most of South Korea’s good work all night, drove a sharp pass through the lines in the 67th minute. Hwang In-beom collected it inside the box, drew Kovar off his line, then showed real composure to cut back onto his right foot before chipping a finish that dropped just inside the far post. Robin Hranac was left sliding on the turf, beaten by a piece of skill that the chance itself did not obviously call for.
Tomas Soucek thought he had restored Czechia’s lead three minutes later, heading home from a Coufal free kick, only for the offside flag to wave it off. That one decision changed everything that followed.
Oh Hyeon-gyu had been on the field for eleven minutes when the winner arrived. Paik Seung-ho’s sweeping ball over the top found Hwang In-beom running the right channel, and his low centering pass was turned in by Oh at the near post in the 80th minute, completing a goal contribution and an assist for Hwang inside the same thirteen-minute spell. South Korea were ahead for the first time all night, and this time they did not give it back.
Czechia kept pushing. Adam Hlozek, on as a substitute, forced two good saves out of Kim Seung-gyu in the closing stages, including one off the line in the 82nd minute that looked goal-bound until the goalkeeper threw himself across to stop it. Michal Sadilek added two more efforts in stoppage time, one of them a header from close range that Kim somehow kept out. None of it found a way through.
The numbers tell you South Korea were the better side for most of ninety minutes. The scoreline for an hour told you the opposite was true. Both of those things happened in the same match, and South Korea are the ones with three points to show for it.
Hwang In-beom leaves Guadalajara as the story of this one a goal and an assist inside thirteen second-half minutes, in a result that puts South Korea level with Mexico at the top of a group that suddenly looks wide open.