South Korea's patchy record against African teams gives Bafana Bafana hope

South Africa need to win to have a realistic chance of advancing to the round of 32, while a draw should be enough for the Koreans.

It means the impetus will be on Bafana to chase the game, which is not necessarily their forte. 

The Koreans’ recent meeting with an African team did not go to plan as they were handed a 4-0 thumping by Ivory Coast in a friendly in Milton Keynes in March.

It was a game they fixed to practice against African opposition in preparation for their last Group A game against South Africa.

They also hosted Ghana in a friendly in Seoul last November, which they won 1-0.

The meeting with South Africa is the first between the two counties but South Korea have had a total of 59 past matches against African teams.

At past World Cup finals, they have had four matches against African opposition with mixed results, starting with their first game of 2006 finals in Germany where they edged Togo 1-0 in Frankfurt but both sides failed to progress.

At the 2010 finals, South Korea finished second in their group behind Argentina but ahead of Nigeria after a 2-2 draw with Super Eagles in Durban.

In 2014 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Algeria beat them 4-2 at the finals where the Koreans finished bottom of their group while at the last World Cup in Qatar, they lost 3-2 to Ghana but still went through to the next round.

South Korea have played against 16 different African countries and won 28 times out of 59 and lost 17.