Korea Republic bowed out of the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup on Wednesday following a 2-0 loss to Belgium, who played the last 20 minutes of the Round of 16 clash at the Estadio La Portada with ten men.
Korea Republic went into Wednesday’s encounter in confident mood, with the 2014 AFC U-16 Championship runners-up, who topped Group B undefeated having not conceded a single goal, facing a Belgium side that advanced to the knockout phase as the third-ranked of the four best third-place finishers, with the European side failing to find the net in two of their three Group Stage matches.

However, the Belgians took the lead after just 11 minutes when Jorn Vancamp celebrated his 17th birthday by becoming the first player to score against the South Koreans at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup when the Anderlecht midfielder calmly slotted the ball past keeper Ahn Joon-soo after the Korea Republic defence had failed to deal with Dante Rigo’s long ball.

After coming close to doubling Belgium’s advantage just before half-time, Matthias Verreth made it 2-0 in the 67th minute when the pacey PSV Eindhoven striker got on the end of a long clearance before the South Koreans could deal with the danger and fired an unstoppable drive past the despairing dive of Ahn.

Four minutes later, Korea Republic were handed a golden opportunity to get back into the match when they were awarded a penalty after Oh Se-hun - scorer of the stoppage-time winner against Guinea - had been pulled back in the box by defender Laurent Lemoine, who was subsequently sent off by Senegalese referee Malang Diedhiou for denying the Ulsan Hyundai forward a goalscoring opportunity.

However Lee Sueng-woo, top scorer and MVP as the South Koreans finished runners-up to DPR Korea at last year’s continental youth competition in Bangkok, saw his 72nd minute penalty save by Jens Teunckens after the Belgium keeper correctly guessed the direction of the Barcelona youth striker’s spot-kick.....

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