Already-qualified Portugal will be looking to make it three wins from three in Group H when they face South Korea on Friday, December 2.

The match will be played at the Education City Stadium in Doha.

Facundo Tello will referee the game. It will be the Argentinian’s second of the tournament after he was appointed to take charge of Switzerland’s 1-0 win against Cameroon last week.

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What time is South Korea vs Portugal?

The match kicks off at 6pm local time which means it will start at 3pm in the UK and the coverage will be shown on the BBC.

In the US, FOX and Telemundo will be showing the match and kick off is at 10am EST and 7am PT.

Kick off will be at 12am in South Korea while it will be the same in Portugal as it is in the UK.

Team news

South Korea will be waiting with bated breath to see if Kim Min-jae will be available for this one. He was injured prior to the defeat to Ghana and was withdrawn early. Since that game, he hasn’t been training but there is hope that he will be fit to play a part.

Elsewhere, Hwang Hee-chan is yet to have played a role having come into the World Cup with a hamstring issue but he could be closer to involvement.

Portugal were dealt a blow in the aftermath of the win against Uruguay. Nuno Mendes was forced out of the game before half-time and he has subsequently been ruled out for the remainder of the World Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Otavio are both doubts for the South Korea clash as they have missed training sessions. The former may still be selected on Friday but Fernando Santos won’t want to take any unnecessary risks so could leave out the 37-year-old.

Danilo Pereira won’t play a part in this one as he fractured three ribs in training over the weekend. There is a belief that he will be fit to be involved later in the tournament, though.

Predicted line-ups

South Korea (4-2-3-1): Kim (Seung-gyu), Kim (Moon-hwan), Kim (Min-jae), Kim (Young-gwon) Kim (Jin-su); Jung, Hwang (In-beom); Lee, Na, Son (Heung-min); Cho.

Portugal (4-2-3-1): Costa, Dalot, Pepe, Dias, Guerreiro; Carvalho, Nunes; Silva, Fernandes, Leao; Felix.

The story so far

South Korea are staring elimination from the World Cup in the face as they prepare for their final game of Group H. They largely kept Uruguay’s attacking players quiet, but weren’t effective enough themselves in front of goal.

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With a point on the board, they will have targeted Ghana as a beatable team, but they left themselves with too much to do against the Black Stars. Mohammed Kudus and Cho Gue-seng traded a pair of goals each but Mohammed Salisu’s opener decided the outcome of the match to leave the Koreans in trouble.

Portugal have already done enough to secure safe passage to the last 16. An exciting, close-run victory against Ghana preceded a more professional 2-0 win against Uruguay and there is, subsequently, not much riding on this game for Santos’ side.

All the talk coming into the World Cup was about Ronaldo but it is Bruno Fernandes who has put his nation on his back. He has two goals and two assists after two games and, if Portugal go far, he could be the favourite for the Golden Ball.

Players carrying yellow cards

South Korea: Cho Gue-sung, Jung Woo-young, Kim Young-gwon.

Portugal: Danilo Pereira, Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Neves, Joao Felix, Ruben Dias.

What’s at stake?

For Portugal, the only thing they are playing for is top spot in Group H. A win or draw will automatically confirm that but they could also win the group with a defeat if Ghana don’t beat Uruguay in the other game.

Meanwhile, it looks pretty bleak for South Korea. Firstly, they have a win to have a chance of progression.

However, that alone won’t see them through. They have to better Uruguay’s result if Ghana lose or must overturn the goal difference to Ghana if the other game ends in a draw.

Keep track of who plays whom in the knockout stages.

Prediction

Portugal to beat South Korea.

South Korea to win: 23%. Portugal to win: 51%. Draw: 26%.

All of our predictions for the 2022 World Cup are powered by Nielsen’s Gracenote, who have used a proprietary football ranking system to estimate the chances of different results for every possible match through extensive simulations, to assess the chances for each team to reach different stages of the tournament.

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Wider reading

There was plenty of debate as to whether Ronaldo actually got a touch to Fernandes’ cross in the win against Uruguay and Adidas were only too happy to spoil the former Manchester United forward’s day. Oh yeah, and South Korea won’t have their manager on the touchline for this one.

Follow the latest Qatar World Cup news, analysis, tables, fixtures and more here.

(Top photo: Getty Images)