France have gone into half-time 1-0 up against South Korea in their Group G encounter at the Zentralstadion, Leipzig on Sunday, with an early goal from Arsenal’s Thierry Henry and what looked like a second goal for Les Bleus being waved away by the referee.

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 left-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 by far the stronger team in the first-half 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, which resulted in a 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.

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