AFC Asian Cup Round of 16: Three reasons why Korea Republic beat Bahrain

#2 Bahrain's strategy of deep defending

When teams with vast ranking differences face off against each other, the lower ranked team usually sits back and defends and tries not to lose by a large margin. While it is the most suitable options at times, sometimes it does hurt the side's chances of winning the game rather than not losing by a significant margin.

Philipines were the first side that showed the other nations in this edition of the Asian Cup that if one tries and presses this Korean defence, then chances are bound to be created. The Philippines failed to score past this Korean defence, but Bahrain scored and maybe had they had the belief they could have managed to score more and win the game.

Bahrain only went on the counter and didn't try to control the game except for a few minutes after they scored the goal in the 77th minute. Had they decided to keep hold of the ball more and try to control the game they could have managed to come up with an upset.

The ultra-defensive mentality helped Korea keep hold of the ball and move it around which ultimately tired the Bahrain players. When the game went into extra time, those tired legs did eventually give away which led to Korea scoring the winning goal in the first half of Extra time.