Celtic’s Yang Hyun-jun suffers South Korean clanger

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The Celtic Star

·30 de marzo de 2026

Celtic’s Yang Hyun-jun suffers South Korean clanger

South Korea suffered a heavy defeat to Ivory Coast on Saturday night, with Hoops wide man Yang Hyun-jun enduring a particularly difficult return to the national team setup…

The Celtic winger made his first appearance for his country since June, coming off the bench at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.

Keen to impress, the 23-year-old instead found himself at the centre of a disappointing performance as South Korea fell to a 4–0 loss.

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The match had already begun to slip away before Yang’s mistake. With South Korea trailing 2–0, the Hoops winger attempted to deal with a loose ball inside his own penalty area while facing goal. His decision to head it backwards proved costly, allowing Ivory Coast to capitalise and make it 3-0.

Evan Guessand reacted quickest to Yang’s error, directing a first-time effort that resulted in a goal.

The final scoreline marked South Korea’s heaviest defeat in nearly a decade, their last comparable loss being a 6–1 defeat to Spain in 2016.

Former Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-gyu was included in the starting line-up but failed to convert a big opportunity in the first-half and was substituted at the interval.

The result has drawn criticism from South Korean journalists, particularly given Ivory Coast’s absence from the last two World Cups, although they will play at this summer’s tournament.

Writing on X, K-League journalist Ross Davis said: “Absolute idiotic header from Yang Hyun-jun there, 3-0. Hong Myung-bo [South Korea boss] mentioned these friendlies needing to boost confidence but it’s definitely gonna have the opposite effect now.”

Yang at Tannadice. Dundee Utd v Celtic. Sunday 22 March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

The Celtic winger is set to feature in their second international friendly match in as many days against Austria tomorrow night.

After that, South Korea and hopefully Yang will look ahead to the World Cup in June, where they are due to face Mexico, South Africa, and the winner of a play-off between Czechia and Denmark in Group A.

Conor Spence

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