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Published: April 23, 1998

Yugoslavia stormed through the second half to come from behind against a South Korean side who wilted under intense pressure.

The Koreans had taken the lead in the 41st minute when Hwang Sun-hong found the target with a speculative freekick that was deflected in. Before that Yugoslavia had looked impressive. All they needed to dominate the game were the finishes that arrived in the second half from their teenage debutante. The game opened with some good passing moves from the home side and they settled into the pattern of trying to breach the tightly packed Korean defence. They were wayward in their shooting during the first half as the defence was pulled right across the field at times by the depth and range of the Yugoslav passing but they lacked the finish to get them ahead. This encouraged the visitors to commit more men into their raids up the field and it paid off when Hwang found the target.

This stirred Yugoslavia into a fine passage of play at the start of the second half as all their qualities were put on show. The passes that had confused the defenders before the break finally reached Dejan Stankovic and he seized his chance to get to France with two excellent headers, the first on 46 minutes and the next some ten minutes later. Jokanovic completed the twenty minute spell of venom from the Yugoslav attack in the 63rd minute and the Koreans were condemned to another disappointing result on their tour of Europe. The best they have managed so far is a scoring draw in Macedonia. Yugoslavia may have found a new star to carry their hopes this summer as Stankovic gave a fine display of attacking particularly in the second half.