Following the departure of national team striker Cho Kyu-sung to Europe, professional football K League 1 side Jeonbuk Hyundai will look to make it three wins in a row against struggling Daejeon Hana Citizen.
Jeonbuk will host Daejeon in the 22nd round of the Hana One Q K League 2023 on 12 December at 7.30pm at Daejeon World Cup Stadium.메이저놀이터
After falling to the relegation zone early in the season and parting ways with head coach Kim Sang-sik, Jeonbuk has rebounded under the recent appointment of Dan Petrescu.
After two consecutive league wins, Jeonbuk is fourth in the league with 33 points. The fourth-place finisher in the K League 1 qualifies for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League.
Jeonbuk is ready for Daejeon.
Jeonbuk is coming off a 1-2 shock loss at home to Daejeon in Round 9, their first meeting this season.
The variable will be the absence of goalkeeper Cho Kyu-sung, who left Jeonbuk to join the Danish league, on 9 September to finalise a move to Danish professional football club Mittwillan.
Cho has been a fixture for Jeonbuk recently, coming on as a substitute and scoring the opening goal in the team’s farewell home match against FC Seoul on 8 August.
However, with no immediate replacement, Jeonbuk plans to fill Cho’s void by deploying Song Min-gyu up front alongside existing attacking options Gustavo.
They will also need their existing second-stringers to step up, including Hapa Silva, Jun Amano, Lee Dong-joon, and Moon Sun-min.
After making waves with their attacking football at the start of the season, the promoted Daejeon team has faltered recently. They have gone four games without a win.
Their last win was a 2-1 victory over Gangwon FC last month. At home, they haven’t won since Round 12 (2-1) against Suwon FC on 10 May.In the previous round, they missed out on a 2-0 lead against Suwon Samseong before coming from behind to win 2-2.
With 29 points (7W, 8D, 6L, 32G), Daejeon is sixth in the league. They need to catch Jeonbuk to stay in contention for the top spot.
They have the same number of points as eighth-placed Gwangju FC (29-27), so a loss would see them drop down the table.
In attack, they rely heavily on Thiago (7 goals), who is the team’s top scorer.
Daejeon will need a resurgence from Yoo Kang-hyun, who was the top scorer in the K League 2 last season with Chungnam Asan (19 goals).
Leaders Ulsan Hyundai will be looking for their sixth straight league win when they welcome Incheon United to their home ground, Munsoo Football Stadium, on the same day, assisting Kim In-gyun’s opening goal.
With a 1-0 win in the ‘East Coast Derby’ against the Pohang Steelers on 8 August, Ulsan extended its lead at the top of the table with 53 points (17 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses).
They are 16 points clear of second-placed Pohang (37).
Incheon (24 points), who are unbeaten in their last two games (1 win, 1 draw) and have gained a foothold in the bottom half of the table, are determined to catch Ulsan and continue their upward trajectory.
Incheon, who are 10th out of 12 clubs in team scoring with 21 goals so far this season, have bolstered their attack by bringing back striker Mugosa, who left for Japan on Tuesday.
Mugosa is a specialised striker who joined Incheon in 2018 and scored 68 goals (10 assists) in 129 games over five seasons.
However, he will not be able to play against Ulsan immediately due to procedures such as visa application and player registration.