South Korea vs Palestine Prediction: South Korea are favourites

South Korea will welcome Palestine at Seoul World Cup Stadium in Round 3 of the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. South Korea are favourites in their group. Who will come out on top after 90 minutes?

South Korea will be gunning to qualify for their 11th successive FIFA World Cup tournament when they begin their third round of Asian qualifiers against Palestine on Thursday. The last time they failed to make the cut was in 1982, and since then they have enjoyed all sorts of fortunes in the competition, right up to finishing fourth in 2002 when they jointly hosted the event with Japan. Hong Myong-Bo, who took over the reins of the team after sacking former manager Jurgen Klinsmann following his underwhelming tenure which ended in a disappointing exit at the AFC Asian Cup semifinals, will manage the team. Currently, South Korea have been slotted into an ostensibly easy group comprising Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and Palestine, and are expected to finish top two and qualify directly into the 2026 World Cup. 

Jo; Moon-hwan Kim, Kim Min-jae, Young-Gwon Kim, Jin-su Kim; In-Beom Hwang, Paik, Jae-sung Lee; Kang-in Lee, Hee-Chan Hwang, Son

Palestine, led by coach Makram Daboub since May 2021, are gunning for history with qualification to their first-ever World Cup. Despite a tough defeat to Australia in their last outing, Palestine will look to impress more in this tie against South Korea.

Hamada; Battat, Termanini, Mahajna, Khalil; Kharoub, Rashid, Warda; Qumbor, Dabbagh, Qunbar

With Myong-Bo in charge for the first time as head coach of the South Korean national team, he can make some unknown choices when it comes to his first starting lineup.

In a likely scenario, superstar Heung-min Son headlines the attacking three, alongside Hee-Chan Hwang and Kang-in Lee, while Kim Min-jae is expected to feature in defense. Coming off a 5-0 loss to Australia, Palestine may go back to their previously successful lineup with Oday Dabbagh leading the charge. This one should be easier for South Korea to manage and is expected to win comfortably.