World Cup - South Korea 0 Spain 0 - Korea win 5-3 on penalties

Hong Myung-Bo scored the winning penalty to put an Asian side into the semi finals of the World Cup for the first time.

Korean delirium was unleashed when he stroked an ice cool finish into the net to cash in on the only penalty miss.

Goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae saved 21 year old Joaquin’s spot kick to his left which was at a nice height to save and Hong did the rest for his country’s burgeoning love affair with the game.

The first spot kicks were flawless although veteran Hwang only scored because the power of his shot took it underneath the body of goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

South Korea benefitted from two Spanish goals being ruled out as the tournament teetered on the brink of a ruinous controversy.

Line officials from minor FIFA nations who go from one year to the next without seeing top class matches should not be taking charge of World Cup quarter finals. They are also not fit enough to keep up with play and make accurate offside decisions.

Spain were robbed of a winning golden goal in the second minute of extra time.

Joaquin crossed from the right wing for Morientes to head in at the far post but the ball was ruled to have gone out of play before the winger crossed the ball in a farcical decision.

Korea received major favours from the linesmen in this game.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter says the line officials have not been up to standard at the finals and he is right.

Blatter is also set to replace the golden goal extra time with something else but that is another recipe for disaster. He has twenty new ideas every day and twenty-one of them are bad.

Back at the action Morientes then hit the post in the 9th minute of over time with a cross shot from the right had side of the penalty area that hit the far post.

The first half of normal time saw Spain come to dominate the action after an even start.

Fernando Morientes headed in a De Pedro free kick but Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae caught the chance in the 27th minute.

Four minutes later Fernando Hierro headed a corner just over the crossbar as right winger Joaquin provided a great option for some convincing Spanish attacks.

The Betis star crossed just ahead of Morientes in the 42nd minute with De Pedro slicing a shot wide from the edge of the penalty area on 44 minutes before Hierro ended the session by heading a corner kick onto the roof of the net.

Spain started the second half strongly and had a goal disallowed inexplicably in the 49th minute.

Ruben Baraja headed in a free kick from the right hand side but it was ruled out for a foul when it appeared a perfectly good goal.

As the game passed the hour mark it was clear that the home side were getting stronger.

Iker Casillas saved Spain with a great reflex save from an angled volley at the left of his goal after a deflected shot allowed Park Ji-sung to hammer the ball at the Spanish goal for the best chance created by the Korean side in the first ninety minutes.

Joaquin cut inside on a run from the right wing to shoot into the side netting and Korean substitute Lee Chun-soo forced Casillas to dive and save with a low drive from the edge of the penalty area.