Palestine hold AFC giants South Korea to a draw in World Cup qualifier

Palestine open their 2026 World Cup qualifying group stage with a remarkable goalless draw playing South Korea in Seoul.

Palestine have held South Korea to a well-deserved, yet surprising, 0-0 draw in their opening Group C match in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.

The remarkable result in Seoul continues the rise of Palestinian football, which had peaked earlier this year with qualification for the knockout stage of the AFC Cup for the first time in the tournament held in Qatar.

Palestine’s appearance at the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers is also a first, but little hope was given to their match against the AFC’s record qualifiers with 11 appearances at football’s global showpiece event.

South Korea boasted many of their star names including striker Son Heung-min – captain of Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League – but were unable to breach the Palestinian defence.

The odds were also heavily stacked against Palestine given that South Korea have not lost a home qualifier since 2013 while their hosts were ranked 14th in the world by FIFA – that in comparison to the Lions of Canaan ranking in 96th place.

Despite those hurdles, Palestine looked to have broken the deadlock in the 22nd minute only for the effort to be correctly adjudged as off-side.

Hong Myung-bo is the hosts’ fourth coach this year and his side struggled to bring their talisman and skipper Son into the game, while the defence looked unsteady.

Their best effort of an even first half fell to Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in, but Palestinian goalkeeper Rami Hamadeh was equal to a well-struck close-range effort.

Hamadeh was called into action again by Lee in the 74th minute as he tipped a free kick