Nearly 7 out of 10 South Koreans believe that the national football team will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a survey showed Monday.

In the survey conducted by Realmeter on 501 adults nationwide, 66.2 percent of them answered that South Korea will make their ninth consecutive World Cup appearance in Russia next year. Only 21.6 percent said that South Korea will not be represented at the 2018 World Cup.

The survey was conducted last Friday, just a day after South Korea had a scoreless draw with Iran at home. Its margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.
 

By gender, men were more positive about South Korea's World Cup qualification as 69 percent of them said the national team will reach football's showpiece event, compared with 63.4 percent of the women.

The poll showed 72.8 percent of those in their 60s predicted South Korea will earn a spot at the World Cup, followed by people in their 30s at 69.2 percent. Only 53.1 percent of South Koreans in their 20s said the men's national team will qualify for the World Cup.

South Korea's World Cup fate will be decided Tuesday when they take on Uzbekistan in Tashkent for their last match in the Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

South Korea, coached by Shin Tae-yong, are currently in second place in Group A, the last automatic qualification spot, with 14 points, just two points above Syria and Uzbekistan.

A win over Uzbekistan will make South Korea achieve their World Cup dreams on their own, but a draw or a loss mean the Taeguk Warriors' fate depends on the match between Syria and Iran.

In Asia, only the top two teams in Group A and B advance directly to the World Cup, while third-placed teams need to go through a playoffs to earn a ticket to Russia. (Yonhap)