Despite the cold weather on Thursday night, Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square was packed with football fans cheering for the national team during Team Korea’s first group match against Uruguay at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

An estimated crowd of some 25-thousand gathered for the event organized by the Red Devil, the official support group for the national football team, more than double the ten-thousand predicted before the event.

Around ten-thousand had already gathered in front of a giant screen by 9 p.m., an hour before the match, prodding the police to make more space by moving back makeshift fences, which they did without issue.

Ahead of the first large-scale public event following last month's fatal Itaewon crowd crush. the police dispatched over 500 officers to maintain order for better crowd management. 

Group cheering events took place at around ten venues across the nation, including the World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon Football Stadium.