Group H updates from the match in Cuiabá
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Russia team guide
South Korea team guide
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12.23am BST
66 min: Kombarov whips in a cross so vicious it eats its dinners with fava beans and a nice chianti. Jung does very well to fist the ball clear.
12.21am BST
65 min: This is a lull. (But it won't hurt you).
12.20am BST
63 min: With the ball out for a throw-in, Hong goes down with cramp. A few fans take the opportunity to have their photo taken with the matchball. That's a superb idea. Though, admittedly, one that could slow down matches considerably if it catches on.
12.19am BST
62 min: Jung's turn to look shaky. Kombarov takes aim from range and the South Korea keeper can't hold it. In fairness, it did bounce a little awkwardly for him.
12.18am BST
61 min: Hong gets on the end of Ki's inswinger, but can only direct his header into the turf. Even Akinfeev has no trouble gathering that one.
12.17am BST
60 min: Yun, the QPR left-back, charges forward and wins a free-kick off Eschenko. This could be dangerous
12.16am BST
59 min: Alan Dzagoev, enfant terrible, wonderful talent, and 24 as of yesterday, replaces Oleg Shatov.
12.14am BST
57 min: Akinfeev's handling has been very poor a free-kick from fully 40 yards from the centre-half Kim slams straight into the keeper's midriff then pops out again. And again he has to scramble to recover.
12.12am BST
56 min: The ineffective Park jogs off to be replaced by Lee Keun-ho, the 2012 Asian Player of the Year.
12.11am BST
55 min: Faizulin thinks Eschenko is overlapping down the line, so taps the ball past the full-back. But Eschenko is 10 yards away wondering what his team-mate is doing.
12.09am BST
54 min: Ki sends it to the back post and Lee can only spoon his header over the bar.
12.08am BST
53 min: This is almost end-to-end now. Son runs at Shatov and wins a corner
12.08am BST
52 min: "I'd like to respectfully disagree with the earlier comment applauding Meireles' hair," writes Keenan Robbins. "He's consistently had some of the worst haircuts over the years (compiling these may be a worthy half-time project; no, you don't need to use the toilet). The entire Portugese team is quite bad in the hair department, really. From the guy from 'Wolf of Wall Street' getting the start at center forward, to Ronaldo's hilarious little bangs that flop down and make a forehead moustache when his liter of hair product fails - they should be removed from the tournament for crimes against taste, theology, and geometry. Italy, of course, win the Hair Cup. Though Paletta doesn't get a winners medal."
12.07am BST
51 min: Ki's turn to shoot from distance and again Akinfeev can't gather cleanly at the first attempt. He recovers just in time to scoop up the ball ahead of the onrushing attackers.
12.06am BST
50 min: Koo pings one at goal from 30 yards and Akinfeev fists the ball away. This has picked up considerably.
12.05am BST
49 min: Shatov goes into the referee's Big Book Of Very Naughty Boys after clattering into (I think) Han.
12.04am BST
48 min: Koo looks to skip around Ignashevich but the experienced old pro just levers him off the ball.
12.03am BST
46 min: Two close shaves in the space of a minute. Faizulin lofts a shot at goal, which Jung tips over. Berezutski gets on the end of the resultant corner and nods into the side-netting, producing one of those fake goal net billows that we saw with Raheem Sterling et al.
12.02am BST
Peep! Off we go again. This needs an injection of pace at the halfway mark. A little like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
11.59pm BST
An email!
"I don't know who made Neil Shipperley the style police, but I think the ref's haircut looks pretty tidy and hardly "shocking"," writes Michael Day. "Sure, you can see that his hair is thinning, especially when viewed from above, but the 'shave it all off' mantra seems to have become the conformist view on what men should do when the hair disappears from top of their heads. I applaud the referee and anyone else who does what they want with the hair at their disposal."
11.55pm BST
It's such an obvious comparison that I hesitate to make it, but there was something a bit England 2010 about that Russia first-half display. It was just so stodgy and unadventurous.
Stat!
Russia fail to score in the first half for their 4th successive WC match, their joint-worst such run at the WC (1958-1962). #RUS #KOR
11.46pm BST
Peep! And it's an uneventful minute. Cue the referee's whistle and a few whistles from those in the stands.
11.46pm BST
45 min: There will be a minimum of one minute's added time sponsored by 7up, Peugeot, PG Tips and Scampi Fries.
11.45pm BST
43 min: Lee and Park exchange neat passes, but can't break through the Russia backline. Park looks happier dropping deep into a No10 role, but he's supposed to be the spearhead in this side. It's not quite working.
11.43pm BST
41 min: Son drifts inside from the left again he's been by far South Korea's brightest player thus far and exchanges passes with Park before winning a corner. Russia scramble clear, but the Taeguk Warriors are on top at the moment.
11.42pm BST
40 min: "Are we sure that referee is Argentinian?" asks Daniel Stauss. "I ask because, in that photo, he looks like he stepped straight out of an old Soviet propaganda poster. There's something about that picture that makes me expect to see him leading schoolchildren into the glorious future, or possibly doing something unsettling with wheat." He does look like he enjoys a BBQ a straight-laced meat-based BBQ (none of your fancy halloumi kebabs) but a good BBQ nonetheless.
11.40pm BST
39 min: Son purrs into a shooting position on the edge of the box. He really is good to watch with the ball at his feet. Unfortunately when the ball leaves his feet on this occasion it heads off into the stratosphere.
11.37pm BST
37 min: Hong goes up for a header and sort of deflects of Kokorin, meaning he heads back to earth in a perpendicular position. He slams into the turf and needs a bit of magic sponge action.
11.36pm BST
35 min: Whipped in, flicked on, headed clear. "Now that we've seen all teams, I'm calling Best World Cup Hair for Raul Meireles," writes Gayathiti Ganeshan. "Mohawk and bushy woodsman beard mean his follicular game is on point." Indeed, though the cross-hairs ahem! so far in this one have been trained on the ref:
11.34pm BST
34 min: Like a shop at around 9am in the morning, it's opening up! Koo finds space outside the area and fires in a shot. Deflection. Corner
11.33pm BST
32 min: Kokorin turns on halfway and zips forward before feeding the ball to Zhirkov on the left. The former Chelsea man skews his shot pretty miserably wide from 25 yards.
11.32pm BST
31 min: From the free-kick which must be 40 yards out and more Ignashevich absolutely thunders in a shot. Jung spills it, but spills it safely.
11.30pm BST
29 min: Ki clatters into Samedov. It's a booking, no more.
11.28pm BST
27 min: which is punched clear by Jung Sung-ryong.
11.28pm BST
26 min: Shatov bursts from midfield with the surprise factor of Giger's Alien bursting from John Hurt's stomach. Unlike the Alien the can't take full advantage of the situation although he has won a corner.
11.25pm BST
25 min: "Since you don't seem to have had any emails yet I am sending one," writes Tony Tyler. "Or is it just cause its all twitter these days? Anyway I wouldn't agree that this could have been the first knockout game, only because Cameroon, Australia and Ghana have been all but knocked out already after losing games they could not afford to lose in their groups. I think I'll need to write more concisely if I am ever to start tweeting. That last sentence could have been dropped for one. And this one "
11.25pm BST
24 min: Han raises the pulse with a thundering tackle on (I think) Glushakov. It wins South Korea the ball 40 yards from goal, but they can't make the most of it.
11.23pm BST
22 min: We're in Nigeria v Iran territory so far I'm afraid to say.
11.21pm BST
21 min: The closest either goalkeeper has come to a workout Kombarov's deep cross finds Samedov sliding in at the back post but in can only sends his effort looping across and away from goal.
11.20pm BST
19 min: Kokorin is caught offside. The TV commentator's pronunciation which may be entirely correct is making is sound like the former Millwall, Rotherham and Crewe defender Justin Cochrane is spearheading Russia's attack.
11.18pm BST
18 min: Son flops theatrically under pressure from Eschenko. Nothing doing.
11.17pm BST
17 min: A cross-field ball finds Zhirkov in space on the left. He works the ball inside and things are looking vaguely dangerous until Shatov's loose pass.
11.15pm BST
15 min: Pass, pass, pass from South Korea. Pass, pass, pass. Then splayed out of play by Kim.
11.13pm BST
13 min: Son pulls back Samedov in midfield or at least the referee thinks he does and picks up a booking. That seems exceptionally harsh.
11.12pm BST
12 min: Cagey. Very cagey.
11.11pm BST
11 min: Son serves notice of his talent with a surging, direct run from left to right. He reaches the edge of the box and needs to look up for options but instead opts to stick his head down and go for goal. It's wild and wide.
11.10pm BST
9 min: A cracking ball inside the full-back from Lee Chung-yong is millimetres from the toes of Park. And in other news, the referee has a combover. I didn't notice, but others have:
Ref needs to look at his Barnet shocking !! Just shave it off proper comb over !!
11.08pm BST
8 min: Kombarov's inswinger skims the foreheads of several attackers but no one can get a telling connection.
11.07pm BST
7 min: Russia are beginning to dominate. Eschenko finds Samedov running in behind his full-back. He can't capitalise on that, but a few moments later his team win a corner after Kim's mistake.
11.06pm BST
6 min: Fayzulin whips in a better cross, but it's met well by Hong.
11.04pm BST
5 min: Samedov gets a yard or two of space down the Russian right, but pings his cross straight into the first defender. And as the ball breaks out to Eschenko he whelps the cross out for a throw-in on the opposite side.
11.03pm BST
4 min: Ignashevich has seen more of the ball than anyone else so far.
11.03pm BST
3 min: Yun sends a throw-in to the feet of Son on the edge of the Russia box, but his control is loose. A scrappy start here.
11.01pm BST
1 min: Russia get their foot on the ball first, but a loose pass from Zhirkov hands possession to their opponents.
11.00pm BST
Peep! Right, off we go then. Russia kick things off. At the coin toss, by the way, Berezutskiy was asked if he wanted to call 'Fifa' or 'World Cup' by referee Pitana. He chose 'Fifa. Pitana looked slightly taken aback.
10.56pm BST
Anthemwatch
Grand old stuff from Russia (plus there appears to be a fan in the crowd dressed as St Nick, huge white beard and all. He must be sweltering). Strings and the odd drumroll from South Korea, and not at all unpleasant.
10.53pm BST
The players are in the tunnel. There's no click-clack, click-clack of studs though, as the tunnel is covered in green carpet.
10.43pm BST
This World Cup has been crammed full of highlights. One that has been unfairly overlooked is the epic commentary of Mick Morgan during Castleford v Wigan (Warning: contains Mild Bad Words) being dubbed over Neymar's flailing elbow against Croatia. Acarn spake:
10.36pm BST
How the teams shape up
Copied below are the official tactical line-ups published by Fifa but I'm not entirely convinced they're correct:
10.20pm BST
Tonight's officials
The referee is Argentinian PE teacher Nestor Pitana and he's a man after my own heart. "I love football in all of its forms," he says. "Watching a good football match is as good as having a good Argentinian barbeque with friends, and sharing some fabulous Argentinian meat.
10.19pm BST
Russia: Igor Akinfeev; Vasili Berezutski, Sergey Ignashevich, Andrey Eshchenko, Dmitry Kombarov, Yury Zhirkov; Denis Glushakov, Alexander Samedov, Victor Faizulin, Oleg Shatov; Alexander Kokorin
Substitutes: Alexey Kozlov, Georgi Schennikov, Andrey Semenov, Kanunnikov, Igor Denisov, Alan Dzagoev, Alexander Kerzhakov, Yury Lodygin, Vladimir Granat, Pavel Mogilevets, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Ionov
South Korea: Jung Sung-ryong; Lee Yong, Yoon Suk-young, Kim Young-gwon, Hong Jeong-ho; Ki Sung-yeung, Han Kook-young, Lee Chung-yong, Son Heung-min, Koo Ja-cheol; Park Chu-young
Substitutes: Kim Chang-soo, Kwak Tae-hwi, Hwang Seok-ho, Kim Bo-kyung, Ha Dae-sung, Lee Keun-ho, Park Jong-woo, Kim Shin-wook, Ji Dong-won, Kim Seung-gyu, Park Joo-ho, Lee Bum-young
10.07pm BST
Some pre-game reading:
Here's John Duerden previewing the AFC's hopes:
Boosted by the draw, expectations are high there too a Seoul poll had 80% predicting the knockout stage though World Cup fever is not. There will be no huge public-viewing parties that have been a bright-red staple of the capital and other major cities for the past three tournaments. The country is still coming to terms with the anguish of Aprils Sewol ferry disaster and there are still victims unaccounted for. Hong wants Asias youngest representatives to make the country feel a little better.
Nobody knows which South Korea will turn up in Brazil they almost did not at all after a poor qualification campaign that saw the team use 45 players, more than all of the qualifiers except Argentina. Could it be the version that has the two wide men, Son Heung-min and Lee Chung-yong, driving forward with speed and skill and the cultured Ki Sung-yeung pulling the strings from deep? Or the one with a toothless attack and a defence terrified of set pieces? Japan may struggle in this regard but South Korea are on a whole other level. Behind closed doors of a training camp in Miami, the team has rolled up its sleeves to work on this vice again and again.
Capellos famed disciplinarian streak has again materialised at this World Cup with his players banned from using Twitter. Tweets can be a nuisance if they are not written in an intelligent fashion, he explained in Cuiabá. Overall, however, his strict approach has been welcomed by a squad that has lost focus in past tournaments. Capello demands discipline and its a good thing because everyone is working hard, giving 100% in every session, said Berezutski.
That was reflected in Russias mature defensive performances in qualifying, another reason why supporters believe Capello has added something different and overdue to the national team.
9.30pm BST
The first knockout game of the tournament? Both these teams you'd expect to beat Algeria. Both these teams you'd expect to lose against Belgium. So this is winner-takes-all, right? Well, no. On the evidence of Belgium's narrow, at times fraught, win over Algeria earlier today Group H is as open as any tonight's tie in the Arena Pantanal might not be the be-all-and-end-all it might have first appeared.
Still sound the Statement of the Bleedin' Obvious Klaxon a win for either side tonight would constitute a huge step towards the second round. And, despite a fair amount of evidence suggesting a result to the contrary, I rather fancy South Korea for this one. Yes, they lost to Lebanon in qualifying and drew with Kuwait. And, yes, in the final qualifying stage they finished level on points with Uzbekistan and behind Iran, who appeared very limited in their opening game against a misfiring Nigeria. And, yes, their World Cup record on anything other than home soil is somewhere between poor and dreadful. And, yes, they lost 2-1 to Russia last November. And 1-0 to Tunisia in their penultimate warm-up game. And 4-0 to Ghana in their final warm-up game.
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