Swiss roll on

Frei's strike - which killed the game with a quarter-of-an-hour-remaining - provoked outrage in the Korean camp after they had stopped with the offside flag being - wrongly - raised.

Though Frei was standing in an offside position as he received the ball, it was deflected into his path off a Korean leg - Argentine ref Horacio Elizondo quite correct to ignore the furore and overrule his hapless assistant.

"I think the ball was deflected on its way to me by one of the Koreans. It was one of those 50-50 things but fortunately the luck was with us," said Frei.

But had he been as clinical earlier in the game as he was in rounding Lee Woon-Jae in adding the second, there would have been no need for discussion.

After Senderos rose superbly to powerfully head home a Hakan Yakin free-kick to give the Swiss the lead 23 minutes in - clashing heads with Choi Jincheul to earn himself a cut on the face for his pains - Frei passed up chance upon chance to put the game beyond the Koreans' reach.

The Rennes striker inexplicably headed a Tranquillo Barnetta corner wide when unmarked in the six-yard box just before the interval, while he spurned three clear-cut second-half opportunities - ironically hitting a post with the most difficult.

But the Swiss - with the excellent Barnetta and Yakin both instrumental - deserved to take the points against a disappointing Korean side.

The Asian nation's best effort came from the bright Lee Chun-Soo, but the peroxide-blonde midfielder's twenty-yard drive was superbly turned aside by Pascal Zuberbuhler late in the first half.

The Basel keeper was also equal to a close-range Cho Jae-Jin header midway through the second half, but was rarely fully put to the test despite the magnificent Senderos being forced off in the second half with a shoulder injury which may threaten his further participation in the tournament.

"It was a very intense match," said Kuhn. "South Korea are a good team and we were a bit lucky at times, but we deserved the win I think overall."

"We knew beforehand that on set pieces they would be dangerous and they were, Swiss controlled the game in first half," admitted Korea coach Dick Advocaat.

"In the second half we deserved more than nothing. We were just not good enough in the end."

Man of the Match: Tranquillo Barnetta (Switzerland)