France's Malouda back to face South Korea

LEIPZIG, June 17 (Reuters) France have recalled midfielder Florent Malouda for their World Cup Group G match with South Korea tomorrow, a team spokesman said today.

The return of Malouda means top prospect Franck Ribery, who started a match for France for the first time against Switzerland on Tuesday, returns to the bench.

The 26-year-old Malouda, who started in all three of the team's warm-up games, will make his World Cup debut after missing France's opening 0-0 draw with the Swiss because he was suffering from haemorrhoids.

Coach Raymond Domenech made no other change to his team for a game in which defender Lilian Thuram will match Marcel Desailly's national record of 116 caps.

''What matters is the match,'' Thuram told reporters today. ''The record is not something that's very important at the moment.'' France, who have not won a match or even scored a goal in the World Cup finals since beating Brazil to lift the trophy eight years ago, must recapture their winning ways or face the prospect of another early exit.

''In that first match what happened in 2002 was on our minds,'' Thuram said, referring to France's shock 1-0 defeat by Senegal in their opening game at the previous finals, which they were to leave without a win or a goal from the group stage.

''This time we will play more freely.'' Domenech said he perfectly realised what was at stake against South Korea, who were surprise semi-finalists in 2002 and lead Group G after starting with a 2-1 win over Togo.

''Before the first match there was excitement but before this one we're clearly feeling the pressure,'' the France coach told a news conference.

''We need to play faster and take more risks and, of course, we need to score. Unfortunately, there's no recipe for that. If there were one, everybody would be using it.'' REUTERS PDS RAI0050