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10MA TOPICS! [DPR Korea FA] ON THIS DAY: DPR KOREA'S 1966 WORLD CUP HEROICS

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10passion

July 19, 2016

NEWS

Kuala Lumpur: A single goal from a 22-year-old winger called Pak Doo-ik made football history on July 19, 1966. Some 50 years later, the-afc.com looks back at DPR Korea’s famous win over Italy at the FIFA World Cup in England.

When DPR Korea arrived in England no Asian team had ever advanced beyond the Group Stage, won a match or even scored a goal at the FIFA World Cup finals, and no Asian nation had even appeared in the tournament since Korea Republic twelve years earlier.

Completely unknown to the football world – outside of the Australian team they comprehensively beat over two legs in order to qualify – Myung Rye-hyun’s DPR Korea side weren’t expected to challenge the more established nations in England, and the draw did them no favours.

The Koreans faced an exceedingly difficult group featuring 1960 European Champions and 1964 runners-up Soviet Union, Chile – who finished third in the previous World Cup - and two-time World Champions Italy, who were expected to engage in a three-way battle for the two quarter-final places.

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