A goal from Kim Jung-woo gave the Koreans a 1-0 win and that, coupled with Saudi Arabia's 4-0 thrashing of Bahrain, was enough to take the two-time champions into the knockout phase as Group D runners-up behind the Saudis.

Despite the win the Dutchman, who worked as assistant at the last two World Cups under Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat, was forced to respond to claims that his team are tactically one-dimensional.

"As far as I know we are in the next game and that was the target and in every game we have scored a goal," said the 51-year-old. "I'm not talking about other teams, only my team, my players and my tactics.

"We are not Manchester United, we are Korea with a very young team and I'm happy that we play with one system and we play very well."

Verbeek said his inability to understand the Korean language shielded him from the constant media attention and that his team was still targeting a first Asian Cup win for 47 years.

"One thing about being a foreigner in Korea is that you can't read the newspapers," he said. "I'm six years in Korea so I know the Korean people want to win and we said the goal was to win the Asian Cup.

"We are still in the race and everything is possible. I understand if there's criticism but that's part of the job."

While Verbeek eyes up a possible quarter-final match-up with Iran, Indonesia coach Ivan Kolev was left to reflect on a tournament of many positives for his side but which ultimately ended in elimination.

"There are so many lessons that we have learnt, I can't explain them all but I'm sure it will mean that we are a much better team in the future because of all the hard work we have done," said the Bulgarian.

"We started training two-and-a-half months ago and it was not enough time but hopefully we can stay in good shape and have a good team in the future."