The Taeguk Warriors will have little more than two full days to recover for the clash with Graham Arnold’s side after needing 120 minutes, plus injury time, and spot-kicks to see off Roberto Mancini’s team at Education City Stadium on Tuesday.

“This win gives the team an enormous amount of energy, it gives the team even more spirit,” said Klinsmann. “This is a group of players I enjoy so much working with because they badly want to do well for their country.

“We wanted to win the game badly before the penalty shoot-out. Anything can happen in a penalty shoot-out. Now we’re waiting for these 53-and-a-half hours and we will recover, we have a good spirit and we’re looking forward to Australia, which is a good team that just won 4-0.”

Klinsmann’s side were made to work for their victory by the three-times champions, with Abdullah Radif giving the 2027 AFC Asian Cup hosts the lead only seconds after being introduced at half-time.

It took the Koreans until the 99th minute to level when Cho Gue-sung headed in from close range to earn his side a justified reward after dominating late in the game and, while both teams had chances to win in extra-time, it was Jo Hyeon-woo who emerged as the hero.

The Ulsan Hyundai goalkeeper saved penalties from Sami Al Naji and Abdulrahman Ghareeb to leave Hwang Hee-chan to score the winning spot-kick and keep alive Korea’s hopes of a first AFC Asian Cup title since 1960.

“We knew this would be a very difficult game against a very good Saudi Arabia team,” said Klinsmann. “We are happy. We should have scored a couple of goals more because we had many chances but Saudi Arabia also had more chances, all the way to the penalty shoot-out.

“We prepared for (penalties), we trained for it and Hyeon-woo made two saves which is wonderful. We expected this game tonight, we got this game against a very good team and now we’re looking forward to the quarter-final.”

Mancini was left frustrated by the defeat and apologised for walking down the tunnel before Hwang smashed his match-winning penalty into the top corner of the Saudi goal, but insisted his side’s elimination would not see him walk away from his post.

“I want to say thank you to all my players for what they did,” said the Italian. “They are improved a lot.”

“In football you can lose, you can win. You play against a very strong team and my players did very well. We lose in a penalty shoot-out, and a penalty shoot-out is a lottery.

“Now we are a team. It’s clear we need to improve more because we want to play at this level and if we want to win against these teams we have to work more.”