Group B of the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

began on 12 June and ended on 22 June 2010. The group consisted of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. It was the third time that Argentina and Nigeria had been drawn together in the same World Cup group, after

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

(when Greece were also in the same group) and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

. Argentina had also been paired with South Korea in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

. Argentina won all three of their matches, conceding just one goal, and progressed as group winners. South Korea joined them in the knockout stage by virtue of their victory over Greece in the opening match and a draw with Nigeria in the last. That point was the only one Nigeria won, having also lost to Greece in their second match.

Standings

advanced to play

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

(runners-up of

Group A Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived touring cars for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles wer ...

) in the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

. *

advanced to play

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

(winners of

) in the

Matches

''All times local (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Por ...

)''

South Korea vs Greece

In the seventh minute, Ki Sung-yong's free kick near the left corner was inadvertently flicked on by

Kostas Katsouranis Kostas Katsouranis (; born 21 June 1979) is a Greek former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, who won the Super League Greek Footballer of the Year Award in 2005 and 2013, as well as the Cosme Damião Award for Footballer of the Y ...

, before Lee Jung-soo rushed to the back post to open the scoring. The Koreans' lead was doubled through captain

Park Ji-sung Park Ji-sung (; born 30 March 1981) is a South Korean former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in the South Korean capital Seoul, Park is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful Asian pe ...

, who tackled Loukas Vyntra and sprinted all the way to fire a low shot into the corner of the net as they kept their 2–0 win until the final whistle.

Argentina vs Nigeria

On six minutes, an unmarked Gabriel Heinze dived forward to head home Juan Sebastián Verón's corner kick and put Argentina 1–0 up.

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

had numerous chances for Argentina following that, but on each occasion, Nigerian goalkeeper

Vincent Enyeama Vincent Enyeama (; born 29 August 1982) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Despite his below-average height for a goalkeeper, he is popularly regarded as one of the greatest African goalkeepers of all time ...

was able to keep the margin down to one. Enyeama's saves earned him the man of the match award. Post-match, Argentina coach

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

said he was confident his side would perform well in the future.

Argentina vs South Korea

Argentina took the lead when

's free kick from the left was turned into the Korean goal by Korean player Park Chu-young. A free kick was awarded on the left, and Messi's cross was headed in by Gonzalo Higuaín. In first half injury time, Korea cut the deficit when Lee Chung-yong tackled

Martín Demichelis Martín Gastón Demichelis (; born 20 December 1980) is an Argentine professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, footballer who played usually as a centre-back, although he could also operate as ...

to score. Two goals from Argentina in the second half sealed a 4–1 win. Messi's shot was first saved by goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong; his second shot hit the post before Higuaín shot the ball into an unguarded net. Higuaín completed his hat-trick by heading in a cross from substitute

Sergio Agüero Sergio Leonel Agüero del Castillo (born 2 June 1988), also known as Kun Agüero, is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. He is regarded as one of th ...

FIFA World Cup 2010 Argentina South Korea3

Greece vs Nigeria

Nigeria vs South Korea

Greece vs Argentina

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Group B

Group B Group B was a set of regulations for Grand tourer, grand touring (GT) cars used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World S ...

Group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

South Korea at the 2010 FIFA World Cup Greece at the 2010 FIFA World Cup