Thanks for your company and your tweets. Belgium won't be too concerned about what they've seen tonight. And neither will Algeria really. Right, that's it from me. Stick around on site for all the reports and reaction. Cheerio!

Peep! Peep!! PEEEEEEP!!! It's all over. Both sides will be happy enough with that.

90+4 min: Kokorin gets round the back, looks up, decides the angle is too narrow for a shot, and finds Samedov at the back post instead. He skews a very difficult chance well over. And that should be that.

90+3 min: Russia press South Korea back into their own area, but can't break through. Time ticking away, though.

90+1 min: … Samedov sand-wedges it in, but it is headed clear. We've got four minutes of added time to play.

90 min: Koo concedes a central free-kick 50 yards from goal after flopping on the ball and grabbing it in an attempt to win a free-kick. He's booked and Russia have a dangerous set-piece …

88 min: Kombarov, whose delivery from the left has been about as useful an attacking weapon as Russia have had, is Kokorined over the bar.

86 min: I'm reminded by Kari Tulinius that I need to be nice about the Russian goalscorer. On no account, should it be said that he Kerzhakoved that into the net.

85 min: More pass, pass, pass from South Korea, who seem to have weathered the Russian storm for the moment.

83 min: Son, who has faded, goes off to be replaced by Kim Bo-kyoung. And with Han off injured, South Korea are temporarily down to 10.

82 min: I mean, bugs the size of gulls? Really?

81 min: … clumped away by Son at the near post. In other news, the TV commentator reckons there are "bugs the size of seagulls" being attracted to the stadium floodlights. Point one: there's no such things as a seagull. Point two: that's ever so slightly terrifying.

80 min: … Ki swings it in. It's half cleared. The ball is swung back in. Akinfeev grabs it gratefully. And Russia break and get themselves a corner at the other end …

79 min: Lee Keun-ho, who has been very bright since his introduction, wins a corner …

78 min: "It never fails," begins Daniel Stauss. "I see a goalkeeper error like that, I immediately think of Rock Biter from the Neverending Story. 'They look like big, strong, good hands, don't they? I always thought that's what they were.' I blame that goal on The Nothing."

77 min: Korea are on the ropes now. Think Rocky Balboa in the 11th against Apollo Creed (first time around). Dzagoev is the spark.

75 min: I haven't seen a replay from the right angle but I have a feeling Kerzhakov may have been offside there. Ah well, no matter. It's a goal regardless. This could be a brilliant last 15.

Carnage in the South Korean box. Dzagoev skips clear and flashes in a shot. Jung saves superbly. A defender hacks clear, straight into the chest of Eschenko, and the ball drops to another substitute, Kerzhakov this time, who swivels and scores.

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71 min: Denisov replaces Glushakov in central midfield. And Hong is being carried off – perhaps it was more than cramp. He's replaced by Hwang Seok-ho.

70 min: Kerzhakov replaces the anonymous Zhirkov. A penny for Capello's thoughts. For Rob Green 2010, read Igor Akinfeev in 2014.

The substitute Lee Keun-ho thrashes in a shot. Again Akinfeev should simply gather. Again he spills it. But this time he spills it over his head and into the net. It'll probably go down as Lee's goal officially, but Akinfeev deserves to have his name against it. If he hadn't used his hands it would have simply bounced away off his face.

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View image in fullscreen

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66 min: Kombarov whips in a cross so vicious it eats its dinners with fava beans and a nice chianti. Jung does very well to fist the ball clear.

65 min: This is a lull. (But it won't hurt you).

63 min: With the ball out for a throw-in, Hong goes down with cramp. A few fans take the opportunity to have their photo taken with the matchball. That's a superb idea. Though, admittedly, one that could slow down matches considerably if it catches on.

62 min: Jung's turn to look shaky. Kombarov takes aim from range and the South Korea keeper can't hold it. In fairness, it did bounce a little awkwardly for him.

61 min: … Hong gets on the end of Ki's inswinger, but can only direct his header into the turf. Even Akinfeev has no trouble gathering that one.

60 min: Yun, the QPR left-back, charges forward and wins a free-kick off Eschenko. This could be dangerous …

59 min: Alan Dzagoev, enfant terrible, wonderful talent, and 24 as of yesterday, replaces Oleg Shatov.

57 min: Akinfeev's handling has been very poor – a free-kick from fully 40 yards from the centre-half Kim slams straight into the keeper's midriff then pops out again. And again he has to scramble to recover.

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56 min: The ineffective Park jogs off to be replaced by Lee Keun-ho, the 2012 Asian Player of the Year.

55 min: Faizulin thinks Eschenko is overlapping down the line, so taps the ball past the full-back. But Eschenko is 10 yards away wondering what his team-mate is doing.

54 min: … Ki sends it to the back post and Lee can only spoon his header over the bar.

53 min: This is almost end-to-end now. Son runs at Shatov and wins a corner …

52 min: "I'd like to respectfully disagree with the earlier comment applauding Meireles' hair," writes Keenan Robbins. "He's consistently had some of the worst haircuts over the years (compiling these may be a worthy half-time project; no, you don't need to use the toilet). The entire Portugese team is quite bad in the hair department, really. From the guy from 'Wolf of Wall Street' getting the start at center forward, to Ronaldo's hilarious little bangs that flop down and make a forehead moustache when his liter of hair product fails - they should be removed from the tournament for crimes against taste, theology, and geometry. Italy, of course, win the Hair Cup. Though Paletta doesn't get a winners medal."

51 min: Ki's turn to shoot from distance and again Akinfeev can't gather cleanly at the first attempt. He recovers just in time to scoop up the ball ahead of the onrushing attackers.

50 min: Koo pings one at goal from 30 yards and Akinfeev fists the ball away. This has picked up considerably.

49 min: Shatov goes into the referee's Big Book Of Very Naughty Boys after clattering into (I think) Han.

48 min: Koo looks to skip around Ignashevich but the experienced old pro just levers him off the ball.

46 min: Two close shaves in the space of a minute. Faizulin lofts a shot at goal, which Jung tips over. Berezutski gets on the end of the resultant corner and nods into the side-netting, producing one of those fake goal net billows that we saw with Raheem Sterling et al.

Peep! Off we go again. This needs an injection of pace at the halfway mark. A little like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

An email!

"I don't know who made Neil Shipperley the style police, but I think the ref's haircut looks pretty tidy and hardly "shocking"," writes Michael Day. "Sure, you can see that his hair is thinning, especially when viewed from above, but the 'shave it all off' mantra seems to have become the conformist view on what men should do when the hair disappears from top of their heads. I applaud the referee and anyone else who does what they want with the hair at their disposal."

Good on you, Michael. I have occasional dreams in which my hair returns. Then I awake and I feel bereft all over again.

It's such an obvious comparison that I hesitate to make it, but there was something a bit England 2010 about that Russia first-half display. It was just so stodgy and unadventurous.

Stat!

Peep! And it's an uneventful minute. Cue the referee's whistle and a few whistles from those in the stands.

45 min: There will be a minimum of one minute's added time sponsored by 7up, Peugeot, PG Tips and Scampi Fries.

43 min: Lee and Park exchange neat passes, but can't break through the Russia backline. Park looks happier dropping deep into a No10 role, but he's supposed to be the spearhead in this side. It's not quite working.

41 min: Son drifts inside from the left again – he's been by far South Korea's brightest player thus far – and exchanges passes with Park before winning a corner. Russia scramble clear, but the Taeguk Warriors are on top at the moment.

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40 min: "Are we sure that referee is Argentinian?" asks Daniel Stauss. "I ask because, in that photo, he looks like he stepped straight out of an old Soviet propaganda poster. There's something about that picture that makes me expect to see him leading schoolchildren into the glorious future, or possibly doing something unsettling with wheat." He does look like he enjoys a BBQ – a straight-laced meat-based BBQ (none of your fancy halloumi kebabs) but a good BBQ nonetheless.

39 min: Son purrs into a shooting position on the edge of the box. He really is good to watch with the ball at his feet. Unfortunately when the ball leaves his feet on this occasion it heads off into the stratosphere.

37 min: Hong goes up for a header and sort of deflects of Kokorin, meaning he heads back to earth in a perpendicular position. He slams into the turf and needs a bit of magic sponge action.

35 min: Whipped in, flicked on, headed clear. "Now that we've seen all teams, I'm calling Best World Cup Hair for Raul Meireles," writes Gayathiti Ganeshan. "Mohawk and bushy woodsman beard mean his follicular game is on point." Indeed, though the cross-hairs – ahem! – so far in this one have been trained on the ref:

34 min: Like a shop at around 9am in the morning, it's opening up! Koo finds space outside the area and fires in a shot. Deflection. Corner …

32 min: Kokorin turns on halfway and zips forward before feeding the ball to Zhirkov on the left. The former Chelsea man skews his shot pretty miserably wide from 25 yards.

31 min: From the free-kick – which must be 40 yards out and more – Ignashevich absolutely thunders in a shot. Jung spills it, but spills it safely.

29 min: Ki clatters into Samedov. It's a booking, no more.

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27 min: … which is punched clear by Jung Sung-ryong.

26 min: Shatov bursts from midfield with the surprise factor of Giger's Alien bursting from John Hurt's stomach. Unlike the Alien the can't take full advantage of the situation … although he has won a corner.

25 min: "Since you don't seem to have had any emails yet I am sending one," writes Tony Tyler. "Or is it just cause its all twitter these days? Anyway I wouldn't agree that this could have been the first knockout game, only because Cameroon, Australia and Ghana have been all but knocked out already after losing games they could not afford to lose in their groups. I think I'll need to write more concisely if I am ever to start tweeting. That last sentence could have been dropped for one. And this one …"

24 min: Han raises the pulse with a thundering tackle on (I think) Glushakov. It wins South Korea the ball 40 yards from goal, but they can't make the most of it.

22 min: We're in Nigeria v Iran territory so far I'm afraid to say.

21 min: The closest either goalkeeper has come to a workout – Kombarov's deep cross finds Samedov sliding in at the back post but in can only sends his effort looping across and away from goal.

19 min: Kokorin is caught offside. The TV commentator's pronunciation – which may be entirely correct – is making is sound like the former Millwall, Rotherham and Crewe defender Justin Cochrane is spearheading Russia's attack.

18 min: Son flops theatrically under pressure from Eschenko. Nothing doing.

17 min: A cross-field ball finds Zhirkov in space on the left. He works the ball inside and things are looking vaguely dangerous until Shatov's loose pass.

15 min: Pass, pass, pass from South Korea. Pass, pass, pass. Then splayed out of play by Kim.

13 min: Son pulls back Samedov in midfield – or at least the referee thinks he does – and picks up a booking. That seems exceptionally harsh.

12 min: Cagey. Very cagey.

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11 min: Son serves notice of his talent with a surging, direct run from left to right. He reaches the edge of the box and needs to look up for options but instead opts to stick his head down and go for goal. It's wild and wide.

9 min: A cracking ball inside the full-back from Lee Chung-yong is millimetres from the toes of Park. And in other news, the referee has a combover. I didn't notice, but others have:

8 min: … Kombarov's inswinger skims the foreheads of several attackers but no one can get a telling connection.

7 min: Russia are beginning to dominate. Eschenko finds Samedov running in behind his full-back. He can't capitalise on that, but a few moments later his team win a corner after Kim's mistake. …

6 min: Fayzulin whips in a better cross, but it's met well by Hong.

5 min: Samedov gets a yard or two of space down the Russian right, but pings his cross straight into the first defender. And as the ball breaks out to Eschenko he whelps the cross out for a throw-in on the opposite side.

4 min: Ignashevich has seen more of the ball than anyone else so far.

3 min: Yun sends a throw-in to the feet of Son on the edge of the Russia box, but his control is loose. A scrappy start here.

1 min: Russia get their foot on the ball first, but a loose pass from Zhirkov hands possession to their opponents.

Peep! Right, off we go then. Russia kick things off. At the coin toss, by the way, Berezutskiy was asked if he wanted to call 'Fifa' or 'World Cup' by referee Pitana. He chose 'Fifa. Pitana looked slightly taken aback.

Anthemwatch

Grand old stuff from Russia (plus there appears to be a fan in the crowd dressed as St Nick, huge white beard and all. He must be sweltering). Strings and the odd drumroll from South Korea, and not at all unpleasant.

The players are in the tunnel. There's no click-clack, click-clack of studs though, as the tunnel is covered in green carpet.

This World Cup has been crammed full of highlights. One that has been unfairly overlooked is the epic commentary of Mick Morgan during Castleford v Wigan (Warning: contains Mild Bad Words) being dubbed over Neymar's flailing elbow against Croatia. Acarn spake:

How the teams shape up

Copied below are the official tactical line-ups published by Fifa but I'm not entirely convinced they're correct:

Russia isn't far off – though I think we'll see Zhirkov play out on the left rather than Shatov – but South Korea's shape doesn't seem right. Park is more likely to play up front on his own, Son will probably be on the left with Koo central and Lee Chung-yong on the right. Ki – playing wide according to Fifa – will surely join Han in the deep screening midfield role.

Tonight's officials

The referee is Argentinian PE teacher Nestor Pitana and he's a man after my own heart. "I love football in all of its forms," he says. "Watching a good football match is as good as having a good Argentinian barbeque with friends, and sharing some fabulous Argentinian meat.”

One of his linesmen is Pablo Hernán Maidana who, on his Argentinian FA profile page, lists his 'short-term objectives as "Achieve a good local championship" and "Consolidation and International Wizard". Now, it could just be Google Translate's idiosyncrasies at play there, but I'm choosing to believe that Mr Maidana does actually want to become an international wizard, that he turned to linesmanning because the flag that comes with the job is a little like a wand, and that his decisions tonight will be aided by occlumency.

Russia: Igor Akinfeev; Vasili Berezutski, Sergey Ignashevich, Andrey Eshchenko, Dmitry Kombarov, Yury Zhirkov; Denis Glushakov, Alexander Samedov, Victor Faizulin, Oleg Shatov; Alexander Kokorin
Substitutes: Alexey Kozlov, Georgi Schennikov, Andrey Semenov, Kanunnikov, Igor Denisov, Alan Dzagoev, Alexander Kerzhakov, Yury Lodygin, Vladimir Granat, Pavel Mogilevets, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Ionov

South Korea: Jung Sung-ryong; Lee Yong, Yoon Suk-young, Kim Young-gwon, Hong Jeong-ho; Ki Sung-yeung, Han Kook-young, Lee Chung-yong, Son Heung-min, Koo Ja-cheol; Park Chu-young
Substitutes: Kim Chang-soo, Kwak Tae-hwi, Hwang Seok-ho, Kim Bo-kyung, Ha Dae-sung, Lee Keun-ho, Park Jong-woo, Kim Shin-wook, Ji Dong-won, Kim Seung-gyu, Park Joo-ho, Lee Bum-young

Some pre-game reading:

Here's John Duerden previewing the AFC's hopes:

Boosted by the draw, expectations are high there too – a Seoul poll had 80% predicting the knockout stage – though World Cup fever is not. There will be no huge public-viewing parties that have been a bright-red staple of the capital and other major cities for the past three tournaments. The country is still coming to terms with the anguish of April’s Sewol ferry disaster and there are still victims unaccounted for. Hong wants Asia’s youngest representatives to make the country feel a little better.

Nobody knows which South Korea will turn up in Brazil – they almost did not at all after a poor qualification campaign that saw the team use 45 players, more than all of the qualifiers except Argentina. Could it be the version that has the two wide men, Son Heung-min and Lee Chung-yong, driving forward with speed and skill and the cultured Ki Sung-yeung pulling the strings from deep? Or the one with a toothless attack and a defence terrified of set pieces? Japan may struggle in this regard but South Korea are on a whole other level. Behind closed doors of a training camp in Miami, the team has rolled up its sleeves to work on this vice again and again.

And here's Andy Hunter of Fabio Capello's Russia:

Capello’s famed disciplinarian streak has again materialised at this World Cup with his players banned from using Twitter. “Tweets can be a nuisance if they are not written in an intelligent fashion,” he explained in Cuiabá. Overall, however, his strict approach has been welcomed by a squad that has lost focus in past tournaments. “Capello demands discipline and it’s a good thing because everyone is working hard, giving 100% in every session,” said Berezutski.

That was reflected in Russia’s mature defensive performances in qualifying, another reason why supporters believe Capello has added something different and overdue to the national team.

The veteran central defenders Berezutski and Sergei Ignashevich have been a reliable foundation for Capello in front of the trusted goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev and the Italian has introduced a high-tempo pressing game to the midfield. How that will function in the heat and humidity of Cuiaba is an issue that appears not to worry the manager. “It was 32 degrees when we trained in Moscow, hotter than anywhere else,” he said. “Besides, it doesn’t feel that hot to me here.”

The first knockout game of the tournament? Both these teams you'd expect to beat Algeria. Both these teams you'd expect to lose against Belgium. So this is winner-takes-all, right? Well, no. On the evidence of Belgium's narrow, at times fraught, win over Algeria earlier today Group H is as open as any – tonight's tie in the Arena Pantanal might not be the be-all-and-end-all it might have first appeared.

Still – sound the Statement of the Bleedin' Obvious Klaxon – a win for either side tonight would constitute a huge step towards the second round. And, despite a fair amount of evidence suggesting a result to the contrary, I rather fancy South Korea for this one. Yes, they lost to Lebanon in qualifying and drew with Kuwait. And, yes, in the final qualifying stage they finished level on points with Uzbekistan and behind Iran, who appeared very limited in their opening game against a misfiring Nigeria. And, yes, their World Cup record on anything other than home soil is somewhere between poor and dreadful. And, yes, they lost 2-1 to Russia last November. And 1-0 to Tunisia in their penultimate warm-up game. And 4-0 to Ghana in their final warm-up game.

Frankly, it says much for my argument that it's mainly based on narrow wins over Switzerland, Costa Rica and Greece over the past 12 months. And yet – they've got some hugely exciting attacking talent. Son Heung-min, who plays his club football for Bayer Leverkusen, could be one of the breakout performers in the tournament. Ji Dong-won, for all his unimpressive displays in the Premier League, is off to Dortmund this summer. Bolton's Lee Chung-yong and Arsenal's (Arsenal's? Still?) Park Chu-young both have something to prove and the talent to prove it. And, if all else fails, they've got Kim Shin-wook, nicknamed The Wookie, as a 6ft 5in Plan B.

South Korea are an unfamiliar pump clip on the World's Cup well-stocked bar – we may get something hoppy, bright and delicious. We may get something treacly, unctuous and intriguing. Or we may get something flat and forgettable that has to be helped down by a bag of dry roasted and a couple of quid in the quiz machine. Still, I for one am looking forward to trying a drop.

Russia, on the other hand, are something that looked exciting when it first turned up at Euro 2008, but now looks a little tired and uninteresting. I don't know – a Peroni maybe? An Amstel? Akinfeev, Berezutski, Ignashevich, Denisov, Zhirkov, Kerzhakov … all fine players, but by now slightly hard to get excited about. Fabio Capello could have been forgiven for picking a squad with one eye on the tournament in four years time on home soil, but that's not really his way and the glimpses of young Russian talent who will be taking this side forward until Russia 2018 might well be few and far between.

But under the auspices of Capello, Russia qualified ahead of Portugal, no mean feat even if Germany highlighted the other day the failings of Paulo Bento's side. And, as you'd expect from a Capello team, they're as solid as a concrete wildebeast. No side has scored twice against Russia since the USA did so in a 2-2 back in November 2012 – in the 14 games since they've been breached only nine times.

But Capello's international tournament record is cause for concern. He has taken limited teams to major finals before and his nightmare with England in 2010 still lingers in the memory. Has he learned his lessons? Will this Russia side, a blend of old stagers and young pups drawn exclusively from the Russian domestic league, show the flexibility, verve and energy so badly missing from Capello's side in South Africa? We shall see.