World Cup - South Korea 2 Turkey 3

A new World Cup record with a goal after only 10.2 seconds helped Turkey on the way to win third place at the World Cup finals.

Song Chung-gug scored with a deflected shot in the 93rd minute but the game was settled in an early flourish.

A further two goals in the first thirteen minutes saw coach Senol Gunes' Turks stem a recovery from the hosts but it was the return to form of senior striker Hakan Sukur and his burgeoning partnership with young star Ilhan Mansiz that perhaps gives the Turks a new strike force for the upcoming Euro 2004 qualifiers.

Sukur cashed in to score the fastest goal ever in a World Cup finals when he robbed Korean defender Hong Myung-bo who was playing his final international after an excellent career with the Korea side as the defender dwelt on the ball by putting his foot on it to recover a momentary loss of balance and Sukur was in on goal to hit low under goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae.

The goal equaled the fastest ever scored in any World Cup match matching the 1993 effort for san Marino at home to England.

But it set a new mark for matches at the finals beating the Czechoslovak Vaclav Mazek’s 1962 strike against Mexico after 15 seconds and Bryan Robson’s 27th second goal for England against France in 1982.

Emre then came close to making it 2-0 in the 7th minute when he touched his own free kick to the side of a defender to hit a shot wide but Korea responded with a great free kick of their own on nine minutes.

Lee Eul-yong curled a left-footed free kick in off the post with Turkish goalkeeper Rustu Recber beaten.

Four minutes later the European side were back in control.

Sukur played a one-two to set Ilhan to touch the ball back to the younger man who stroked it in from the middle of goal under a challenge wide of Lee.

Ahn Jung-hwan tested Rustu with a rising shot after a clever turn in the penalty area with the shot tipped over but the Korea star was lucky to escape punishment for a stamp after a tackle on defender Alpay.

In the 32nd minute Rustu lashed a long kick up field for Sukur to head down to Ilhan who returned the pass to run on ahead and collect the through pass from the Parma forward and hit a chip on the run over Lee for a neat finish.

Lee had to save low from a Sukur header down at a corner kick and then save a close range shot on the run from the Turk as Korea struggled to find a way through the Turkish defence with their own back line creaking.

Song Chung-gug cut inside in the 50th minute to hit a rising shot from the right hand saide just over the bar as Korea raised the tempo of their game at the start and end of the second half.

Ahn had a shot in the 83rd minute deflected wide from a central position with Rustu saving a shot on the run from substitute Cha Doo-ri two minutes later. Song then made Rustu dive late to save with a cross shot on 88 minutes with Cha heading onto the roof of the net in the last minute from a corner kick.

Turkey played both of the co-hosts and Brazil twice but were on the brink of elimination after two group matches and ended the tournament with great credit as they held off Korea quite comfortably for most of this game.

Korea helped to make the tournament memorable for all sorts of reasons but now have to make sure that the loss of coach Guus Hiddink whose contract ends tomorrow does not kill off their chances of future progress.