South Korea vs Czechia

South Korea and Czechia have never shared a World Cup pitch, which makes this group-stage encounter in Guadalajara feel like a genuine unknown — two teams whose reference points come from entirely different football continents. The Taegeuk Warriors arrive off an AFC Asian Cup semi-final run and a qualifying campaign where Son Heung-min's class papered over structural cracks that Hong Myung-bo has spent two years trying to mend. South Korea's 4-2-3-1 is built around transitioning quickly: Kim Min-jae's raking diagonals from the back, Lee Kang-in's ability to receive between the lines, and Son drifting infield from the left to overload the half-spaces.

The system works beautifully when the opposition commits bodies forward, but it can look one-dimensional against a low block. Czechia offer precisely the kind of organised resistance that has troubled South Korea in recent friendlies against European opposition. Miroslav Koubek's side qualified from a UEFA group that included Poland and Moldova, finishing unbeaten with a goals-against column that rarely exceeded one.

The Czechs play a 3-4-3 in possession that morphs into a 5-2-3 without the ball, and Ladislav Krejčí's range of passing from the left centre-back position is the mechanism that drags opponents out of shape. The historical ledger is nearly blank — a single friendly in Prague in 2002 finished 5-0 to the Czechs, but that was a South Korea still finding its feet. Two decades on, the gap has narrowed dramatically.

The tactical fascination lies in whether South Korea's verticality can punch through Czechia's numerical back line, or whether Krejčí and the midfield pivot will suffocate the space that Son thrives in.