France end goal drought but held by Korea

LEIPZIG, June 19 (Reuters) France were held to a 1-1 draw by a dogged South Korea side that left Group G wide open after the former champions missed a series of late chances.

France ended a worrying goal drought at World Cup finals thanks to an early goal from Thierry Henry but Park Ji-sung grabbed Korea's equaliser in the 81st minute yesterday.

Zinedine Zidane will miss the last group match against Togo after picking up his second yellow card and if the French do not qualify will have played his last game for his country.

South Korea lead the group with four points from France on two. Switzerland, who have one, and Togo, who have no points, meet in their second group game in Dortmund today.

''They pushed and we were not able to retain the ball,'' said France coach Raymond Domenech. ''They wore us out. They're a solid team. After going 1-0 up we were not quite good enough but we have a match left which we have to win to keep hoping.'' South Korea's Dutch coach Dick Advocaat was very upbeat.

''In the second half we improved and as the game went on, sometimes we were able to control it. From one of the few chances we had we scored, so we had a bit of luck.'' France, the 1998 champions who had started with a dull 0-0 draw with Switzerland, stepped up a gear in a bid to keep alive their chances of reaching the knockout stage.

Henry gave them a ninth minute lead with a cool left-foot finish after a Sylvain Wiltord shot took a deflection and broke into his path. It was France's first at World Cup finals since they beat Brazil 3-0 in the final in Paris eight years ago.

UNWANTED RECORD Les Bleus went out in the group stage in 2002 without scoring and would have matched Bolivia's unwanted record of five World Cup games without a goal had they not scored yesterday.

An ageing France team certainly did not look like title contenders on a dry, mild evening in Saxony and are still not sure of avoiding another embarrassing early exit.

South Korea were lively as ever but looked also naive and harmless against opponents a lot tougher than Togo, whom the 2002 semi-finalists had beaten 2-1 in their opening match.

Looking a lot fresher and more aggressive than in their opening match, France benefited from a convincing World Cup debut by midfielder Florent Malouda, who had missed the match against the Swiss suffering from haemorrhoids.

France had threatened after seven minutes with a close-range effort by Wiltord which Korean goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae managed to kick out.

The French contingent in the Zentralstadion shouted for a goal after 32 minutes when a header from a corner by Patrick Vieira appeared to cross the line before Korean keeper Lee Won-jae pushed it out.

The Koreans threatened on a few occasions but were never able to keep up any sustained pressure on the French.

The tempo dropped in a relatively sluggish second half until top prospect Franck Ribery came on for France and treated the fans with a few of his trademark exciting runs.

France defender Eric Abidal picked up a yellow card and, like Zidane, misses their last group match against Togo.

But worse was to follow for the French as Korea attacked down the right and when a cross from substitute Seol Ki-hyeon was headed back into the area by Cho Jae-jin, Park popped up to slice the ball over Fabien Barthez for a priceless equaliser.

REUTERS PDS RAI0533