Fri 23rd Jun 2006

Switzerland topped their group and cruised into the last 16 after Phillipe Senderos handed them a 1-0 win over South Korea in Hanover on Friday.

The Arsenal defender was left with blood streaming down his face after steering the ball home after 23 minutes, but that will have done little to dampen the 21-year-old's celebrations as the Swiss cruised into the knockout stage.

The game kicked off in lively fashion, with last-ditch tackles from Kim Dong Jin and Choi Jin Cheul denying Hakin Yakin and Tranquillo Barnetta in the opening 10 minutes.

Lee Chun Soo beat the offside trap only to see his ball back across the face of goal fail to find another player in a white Korean shirt.

Senderos then gave his side the lead from a Yakin cross, before Yakin himself went close with two efforts that only served to finally awaken the Korean attack.

Lee Chun Soo was at the heart of most of the 2002 semi-finalists' best moves, the former Numancia striker seeing his shot pushed wide by Pascal Zuberbuehler four minutes before the break.

And in injury time Lee again forced a save out of the Swiss keeper, turning to shoot from the edge of the area before Zuberbuehler steered the ball around his left upright.

South Korea did improve in the second half with Ho Lee going cloest, but as they pushed for an equaliser, it was the Swiss who were looking the more likely to score with Alexander Frei going close on a couple of occasions.

Frei did then double the lead in controversial fashion on 77. The referee's assistant had flagged for offside but the referee ignored it and the striker duly rounded the keeper to score from an acute angle and compund Korea's misery, as they finished bottom of the group.