(WS News) – South Korea captain Son Heung-min praised the resilience of the Palestinian team after the Tottenham Hotspur forward earned his side a point in a 1-1 draw with the war-hit outfit in Amman on Tuesday in the third phase of Asia’s World Cup preliminaries.
Son levelled the scores in the 16th minute after Zeid Qunbar gave the Palestinians a shock early lead, pouncing on an under-hit back-pass by Bayern Munich defender Kim Min-jae.
The Palestinians frustrated the Koreans with a 0-0 draw in their previous qualifier in Seoul in September, as Makram Daboub’s side continue to perform under the shadow of the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Gaza since last October.
“I’d like to applaud them,” Son said of the Palestinians, who were forced to play in neutral Amman due to the ongoing security situation.
“I think they were really well prepared despite being in such a difficult situation and they executed their plans really well.
“I think that’s something we can learn from them. I am disappointed that we didn’t win and hopefully, we will play better next year.”
The draw ended South Korea’s run of four straight wins in qualifying but Hong Myung-bo’s side remain on track to progress to the World Cup finals with a three-point lead over second-placed Iraq in Group B.
On a star-studded practice court, tennis great Rafael Nadal rallied with current world number 3 player and fellow Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz as the two geared up for Rafa’s last professional tennis tournament.
The Palestinian team is bottom of the group.
The first two teams in each of Asia’s three groups in the preliminaries advance automatically to the World Cup and the Koreans are attempting to feature at an 11th consecutive tournament.
“I think we made this match difficult for ourselves because of the mistake,” Son said, who finished off a neat passage of interplay with Lee Jae-sung to level the scores.
“We tried to bounce back and scored the equaliser pretty early. But we could have won this match if we’d converted our opportunities.”
