Republic of Korea claim Football first

London: Republic of Korea claimed their first-ever Olympic Games Football medal as they saw off Japan to secure bronze 2-0 at the Millennium Stadium.Arsenal's Park Chuyoung set them on their way with a superb solo effort in the 38th minute before captain Koo Jacheol sealed the win 11 minutes into the second half.

Japan enjoyed plenty of possession but found it tough to break down a well-organised Korean defence.

Republic of Korea captain Koo was heavily involved from the off and had a penalty appeal waved away when he went down far too easily with Hiroki Sakai in close attendance.

It took almost half-an-hour for the first shot on target, with Jung Sungryong unconvincingly parrying Hiroshi Kiyotake's low shot.

Sakai headed over from a corner for Japan, but it was Republic of Korea who took the lead when Park seized on a poor defensive header to brilliantly turn Daisuke Suzuki and fire low beyond Shuichi Gonda.

Yuki Otsu crafted a great chance to level early in the second half, but he scuffed his shot after neat interplay with Keigo Higashi.

And the miss was punished a few seconds later when Sunderland's Ji Dongwon flicked on goalkeeper Jung's long ball downfield to allow Koo to shoot across Gonda into the net.

It was almost 3-0 just short of the hour but Gonda managed to tip Kim Bokyung's curling effort onto the post.

Japan pushed forward in search of a way back into the game, but their hopes of setting up a tense finish ended when Yoshida's header was ruled out for a block on Jung with three minutes to go.