South Korea's Round of 32 Hopes Dim as Senegal's Big Win Drops Them to 7th

South Korea has dropped to 7th place in the competition among third-place teams for a spot in the 2026 North and Central America World Cup Round of 32, following Senegal's commanding victory over Iraq.

Senegal secured a 5-0 win against Iraq in their final Group I match of the group stage, held at Toronto Stadium in Canada on Saturday, June 27.

With this first win after two losses, Senegal accumulated 3 points to maintain 3rd place in their group.

Furthermore, Senegal climbed to 5th place in the overall ranking of third-place teams.

As a result, South Korea, which had been in 6th place, slipped to 7th.

In this tournament, not only do the top two teams from each of the 12 groups advance, but the top 8 third-place teams also qualify for the Round of 32.

This match result eliminated one of the six scenarios that would have allowed South Korea to advance to the Round of 32.

Iraq finished the tournament with three consecutive losses.

Senegal took an early lead just 4 minutes into the first half when a header by Abdoulaye Seck from a corner kick found the net. The ball off Seck's head deflected off Mouhamadou Habib Diallo and into the goal, resulting in a goal for Diallo and an assist for Seck.

Had the match ended that way, South Korea would have held an advantage over Senegal in the third-place rankings.

However, a turning point occurred when Iraq's Rebin Sulaka was sent off with a red card in the 13th minute. With a numerical advantage, Senegal dominated the second half with a goal spree, pushing South Korea down the rankings.

In the 11th minute of the second half, Ismaila Sarr scored off a short pass from Lamine Camara to make it 2-0. With 4 career goals on the World Cup stage, Sarr became Senegal's all-time leading World Cup scorer.

Pape Gueye then scored consecutive goals in the 14th and 26th minutes of the second half, effectively forcing Iraq to surrender.

Senegal sealed their 5-0 victory with a long-range goal by Iliman Ndiaye in the 37th minute of the second half.

In another match from the same group held simultaneously at Boston Stadium, France defeated Norway 4-1, led by Ousmane Dembele, who completed a hat-trick in the first half, finishing the group stage with three straight wins.

France advanced to the Round of 32 as the group winner, while Norway, with 2 wins and 1 loss, advanced in second place.

Although the match was highly anticipated as a showdown between France's Kylian Mbappe and Norway's Erling Haaland, the star of the show was last year's Ballon d'Or winner, Dembele.

Mbappe took a supporting role, providing assists for two of Dembele's goals. Haaland did not play in this match.

In the 7th minute, Mbappe delivered a through ball from the center to the deep right flank, which Dembele collected and fired home with a sharp right-footed shot to open the scoring.

Dembele added another goal in the 20th minute, again assisted by Mbappe. This time, Dembele received a pass from Mbappe from the center to the right, cut inside, and curled a left-footed shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

Norway pulled one back just a minute later through a goal by Thelonious Aasgaard before France could reorganize, but that was all they could manage.

In the 32nd minute, Dembele took his time to find a shooting angle against several defenders in the right side of the penalty area before unleashing a left-footed shot to find the back of the net.

According to football statistics provider Opta, Dembele recorded the second-fastest hat-trick in World Cup history. The record is held by Austria's Erich Probst, who scored three goals in 24 minutes against Czechoslovakia in the 1954 Swiss tournament.

France secured a comfortable 4-1 win after Desire Doue scored a final goal in the 49th minute of the second half.

Mbappe and Haaland are currently tied for second place in the tournament's scoring race with 4 goals each, trailing Lionel Messi (5 goals, Argentina).

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.