Judge Manning, who oversaw the referee against Oman, swept his chest this time with a dubious penalty decision.
South Korea’s national soccer team led by head coach Hong Myung-bo won a dramatic 3-1 victory over Oman in the second Group B match of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North Korea and the U.S. at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Muscat, Oman, at 11 p.m. on the 10th (Korea time). With the victory, South Korea reported its first win for Hong.
Chinese referees were assigned to the match on the day. Chinese referees including Manning, Deputy referee Zhou Pei, Zhang Qing, Waiting referee Wang Di and VAR refereeing were Hu Ming and Sean Yu Hao.
Early stages followed Korea’s trend. As Korea started to create good chances to attack, Hwang Hee-chan scored the first goal in the 10th minute of the first half. However, as the mood of Oman shifted from the middle of the first half to the atmosphere of Oman, Jung Seung-hyun scored an own goal at a free kick situation in the 2nd minute of the first half. Korea ended the first half with 1-1.
There was a scene that was doubtful during the second half. In the fifth minute of the second half, Son Heung-min tripped over a Chinese player’s foot when he was trying to drive the ball out of the box. Referee Manning declared a penalty, but after communicating with the VAR referee, he conducted an on-field review himself. A long time passed as the reading lasted for more than three minutes, and eventually referee Manning canceled the penalty kick.
South Korea tried to solve the game despite unfavorable conditions such as inconsistent referee’s judgment and Oman’s bed soccer. In the end, a joint goal between Lee Kang-in and Son Heung-min widened the gap in the 37th minute of the second half. With 16 minutes of extra time in the second half, South Korea wanted to end the match, and the match ended with a 3-1 victory for South Korea as Joo Min-gyu scored a decisive goal in the 11th minute of extra time in the second half. 먹튀검증
Referee Manning is a referee who has had a bad relationship with South Korea before. Manning was also assigned as a referee in the first group match between South Korea and Bahrain at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup. Even though the situation was not violent enough to give a warning at the time, he took out yellow cards to four South Korean players in the first half alone. A total of seven yellow cards were issued throughout the game, and five were given to South Korea alone, raising controversy over the decision.
Korea was not the only country that abused its yellow card. He continued his judgment in favor of Qatar in the round of 16 match against the Palestinians, making Palestinian players strongly protest, and remained at the center of controversy throughout the match as he played without VAR even when handball was suspected in the round of 8. As he met with Korea again in eight months, he made the match difficult.