Recap: Gangwon FC 1-2 Daejeon Citizen

Park Dae-Hoon came off the bench to net a dramatic late winner for Daejeon. Credit: DCFC.co.kr

Daejeon come back from the dead to snatch a dramatic late victory at automatic promotion-chasing Gangwon FC on Saturday afternoon.

Gangwon FC took the lead through a Luiz goal midway through the second half before a Citizen late show turned the game in its head.

With two minutes of the additional five already played, Brazilian forward Gustavo tenaciously latched onto a loose ball at the edge of the box before unleashing a venomous left-footed half volley past the helpless Ham Seok-Min in the Gangwon goal to equalise.

The goal looked to be enough to salvage a point but the Purples weren't finished, young striker Park Dae-Hoon in particular, who showed came off the bench to show predatory instincts by mopping up another loose ball, this time 12 yards out, before blasting his left-footed effort past Ham Min-Seok in the dying minutes.

The first half was a somewhat open affair with both teams enjoying spells of possession in each other's halves but, as neither side showed sufficient incision the score remained goalless at half time.

In the second half both sides upped the tempo a touch with Daejeon in particular looking the most threatening.

However, despite good possession, it was the home side who took the lead, partly thanks to the skill and technique of Brazilian forward Luiz, and partly as a result of Daejeon's slack defending.

The Gangwon number 9 was allowed time and space to advance into the penalty area from 25 yards out unchallenged before slotting the ball past Park Ju-Won into the bottom left-hand corner.

Gangwon, though, failed to put the game to bed and found themselves under the cosh somewhat in the latter stages of the second half.

Daejeon kept going and, ultimately, got their just rewards with two emphatic injury time goals to turn the game completely on its head.

Gustavo ended his barren run without a goal in the 92 minuted with a perfectly-executed left foot volley before Park Dae-Hoon grabbed the winner just a couple of minutes later.

The win, which was Daejeon's first comeback win of the season and only their fourth win on the road in 2016,  means that the Purples still have a chance, albeit an extremely slim one, at reaching the playoffs.*

Up next for Citizen is a home fixture with Chungju Hummel, stay tuned for a K League United preview next week.

Daejeon starting 11:

Daejeon Starting 11 vs Gangwon

Daejeon Substitutes: 25 Lee Bum-Soo, 11 Yoo Seung-Hwan, 15 Kang Young-Je, 19 Park Dae-Hoon, 22 Oh-Chang Hyun, 23 Cho Ye-Chan, 88 Go Min-Hyuk.

*at the time of writing