Great Britain Vs South Korea, 2012 Olympics: Hosts Out On Penalties

Great Britain's hopes for a medal in football have been dashed at the quarter-final stage after South Korea won 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Daniel Sturridge missed the deciding penalty kick, with his penalty saved by substitute goal-keeper Lee Bum-Young, proving once again, that stutter run ups in penalties are dumb. After that, Celtic's Ki Sung-Yeung stepped up and smashed his penalty into the top of the goal to send South Korea into the semi-finals and, at least, the bronze-medal match.

South Korea dominated the initial proceedings, with their high-pressure game wreaking havoc on Great Britain's passing game. The pressure and rutted pitch made the British passing suffer, and they looked extremely flat compared to South Korea. A couple of long shots, though, was South Korea's only result from their dominance until Ji Dong-won's 29th minute hard hit shot went through Jack Butland. The chance came after Ki Sung-yueng's brilliant side footed layoff, and was a well deserved lead.

Great Britain, though, immediately responded, with a nice combination between Aaron Ramsey, Craig Bellamy and Sturridge showing things to come. One minute later, Britain had a chance to equalise, after Ryan Bertrand's shot hit the arm of a sliding Oh Jaesuk to give Britain a penalty. Aaron Ramsey stepped up and scored his penalty, despite the fact that it went under the hand of Jung Sungryoung. 4 minutes later, in the 39th minute, Britain had another penalty, with Daniel Sturridge tripped in the penalty box trying to control Scott Sinclair's through pass. This time, Ramsey didn't score, with Jung going right and saving Ramsey's hard-hit but low penalty.

Britain, though, were starting to dominate, and continued to do so in the second half. Their three v two advantage in the midfield started to tell, with Ramsey dictating play and spreading the ball wide to the wide areas, especially to Craig Bellamy, where Britain were dominant. From that combination, a glorious chance was created in the 48th minute; Bellamy's cross just evaded the toe of Tom Cleverley after he made a run into the 6 yard box. Cleverley lookd very frustrated with himself, and he should've scored.

7 minutes later, a scary collision between Micah Richards and Jung saw both come off with injury, with Craig Dawson replacing Richards. That, though, didn't change Britain's dominance, although Ji had a glorious chance late in normal time, but headed wide of goal. Britain had better chances, with Daniel Sturridge's flicked shot parried before Craig Dawson fired a long shot from thirty yards that was heading in until Kim Younggwon stuck his face into the shot, sending it over the bar.

Britain, though, couldn't create anything else, and extra time beckoned. Both sides had good chances in the early stages, but the match descended into South Korea sitting deep and Britain hitting long diagonals for substitute Danny Rose, to no effect.

The match would be decided on penalties, and the first four from each side were impressively made, until Sturridge had his penalty saved, sending Britain out earlier than they should've been.

South Korea will face Brazil in the semi-final on Tuesday, while Britain's players, such as Ryan Giggs, Sturridge, Steven Caulker, Craig Bellamy and Aaron Ramsey will get a short layoff before the Premier League season starts in two-weeks.