Sympathy for Spain

Lucky breaks have helped the co-hosts, says Gray

By Andy Gray BBC Radio Five Live's summariser on South Korea's win over Spain

South Korea were again great in terms of what they did - and the way they went about it was fantastic.

And they rode their luck, as you have to in any tournament.

I thought Joaquin was the best player on the pitch by a distance and I felt sorry for him

But I do think the Spaniards have got much to feel aggrieved about.

I thought they scored two good goals, either one of which would have won them the game.

The decision to disallow the header from Morientes, because the ball supposedly went out of play from Joaquin's cross, was as poor as any I have seen at this tournament.

And I felt sorry for Joaquin, who missed the vital penalty.

Joaquin (left) was inconsolable at the end

I thought he was the best player on the pitch by a distance and I feel for him - nobody wants to miss a penalty.

He is 21 and he didn't deserve to be the one to miss but he'll learn a lot from that and will probably come back a better player.

I honestly thought Spain would beat Korea and they probably should have done.

But the simple fact is they didn't.

In cup football, if you don't get lucky, if bad decisions go against you and if you don't score your penalties when you need to, then you go out.

Slower tempo

Korea were probably tired against Spain.

That was the third game in a row that they had picked the same team and it took it out of them.

It was humid too - even the Koreans felt it - so that's probably why they had to play a little slower pace and tempo.

We will probably find that Tuesday's night-time kick-off will help them.

And if they are fit and have recovered quickly enough, be in absoultely no doubt that they will give the Germans a real run for their money.

Beckenbauer blasts Germany

Rudi Voeller's side will certainly need to play better than they have done so far.

Because if they don't, they will soon become the next "big team" to fall on the South Korean sword.