South Africa and South Korea meet at the World Cup for the very first time.

South Africa's only World Cup meeting with Asian opposition was a 2–2 draw with Saudi Arabia in 1998.

South Korea have faced African opposition 4 times at the World Cup — W1 D1 L2.

Thapelo Maseko is the 2nd-youngest player to score for South Africa at a World Cup, aged 22 years, 225 days.

South Africa have qualified for the knockout stages for the first time. They are the 7th African nation to reach the knockout stage of the WC.

South Africa beat Korea Republic 1–0 with just 32% of the ball — their lowest possession percentage in any World Cup match.

South Africa kept a clean sheet — their first World Cup clean sheet in 7 matches, since 2002.

Korea Republic have conceded in each of their last 6 World Cup matches — their last World Cup clean sheet was against Uruguay in 2022.

Korea Republic’s 68.5% possession was their highest in a World Cup match, they still lost 1-0.

Korea Republic completed 639 passes (most ever by them in a WC match) to South Africa's 273.

South Africa beat Asian opposition for the first time at the World Cup.

South Africa have won a World Cup match for the first time since 2010.

African teams have already scored 24 goals at this World Cup — the most they have ever scored at a single World Cup.

The last 11 goals South Africa have scored at the World Cup have been scored by 11 different players.

Jin-gyu Kim (Korea Republic) completed all 52 of his passes — the 5th-most passes at 100% completion by any player in a World Cup match in the last three World Cups.