An early goal from Arsenal’s Thierry Henry and a second-half strike from Manchester United’s Park Ji Sung against the run-of-play have seen France draw 1-1 with South Korea in their Group G encounter at the Zentralstadion, Leipzig on Sunday.

Arsenal’s Thierry Henry was expected to be joined by Manchester United’s Louis Saha in attack but France head coach opted to start with a lone striker and it took little time for him to score the first goal in the World Cup Finals for Les Bleus since Emmanuel Petit's winning goal against Brazil when they lifted the trophy in Paris eight years ago.

A pass from Sylvain Wiltord saw Henry break the South Korean off-side trap in the 9th minute and he struck home from 6-yards with a sweet right footed shot past keeper Lee Woon Jae.

The Koreans weren’t put-off by the early goal and, buoyed by the constant chanting of their fans, pressed for an equaliser, but the French were the stronger team in the first period of the match.

Henry dramatically fell for a free-kick in the 23rd minute, which the Arsenal striker took himself, but the shot hit the wall and went away for a corner that was shot way over the bar.

Henry had a penalty appeal waved away in the 28th minute, but the Koreans were defending well and shepherded the ball away.

The score should have been doubled for France just after the half-hour mark, with a header from Patrick Viera looking like it had crossed the line before Lee Woo Jae pushed it away, but neither the linesman or the referee were having any of it.

Replays looked like the ball had actually crossed the line, but there was nothing concrete in any of the replays for the French to get too upset about.

Lee Chun Soo almost equalised for South Korea from a free-kick in the 37th minute, but the swinging free-kick coming in just behind the unmarked striker saw the ball flash just wide of Fabien Barthez’s left-post.

France had far more possession in the first-half, with Korea unable to string a decent run of passes together to form an attack and Les Bleus thoroughly deserved their half-time lead.

France dominated the second-half with plenty of shots and again Les Bleus were denied when Willy Sagnol made an overlapping run down the right and whipped in an inviting cross which Patrick Vieira powered on goal. It was definitely saved on the line this time, but again the whistle went for a free-kick, the Juventus man adjudged to having fouled Choi Jin-Chul.

Lee Ho was injured in a clash with Patrick Viera and stretchered off the pitch halfway through the second-half and was replaced by Kim Sang Sik, but even though it sparked the Koreans into action, they struggled to find a way through and didn’t trouble Barthez.

Korea equalised after pressuring the French goal for the first real time, with a cross that was headed down with Manchester United’s Park Ji Sung getting the final touch just a yard from goal that saw the ball loop over Fabien Barthez and into the side netting to make it 1-1.

France immediately tried to get their lead back with Franck Ribery picking out Patrick Vieira in space on the edge of the penalty box but ballooned his shot way over the crossbar.

It was end-to-end in the last minutes of the game, with both teams looking likely to score.

Zinedine Zidane was subbed for David Trezeguet at the end of normal time, possibly the last time he will ever play a competitive match, and France continued to press for a winner.

The final whistle went with France absolutely distraught that they didn’t make their dominance in the game pay and now face a nervous wait to see the result of the match tomorrow between Switzerland and Togo, which if there is a winner, it means France will have to really pull the stops-out if they want to avoid being knocked-out of the World Cup Finals in the group stages for the second World Cup in a row.

(Corrected)