Korea went down 3 to 2 to defending champion France in a hard-fought friendly match in Suwon Sunday. The warm-up match, however, gave Korea, ranked 40th in the world, further confidence that it could reach the second round of the World Cup, which opens Friday. French defender Frank Leboeuf snatched the winning goal in the 89th minute when he took a pass from first-half substitute Sylvain Wiltord well on his chest and hit the ball home on the half-volley. For France, the victory was its first it three games. France lost to Belgium 2 to 1 in a friendly match May 18 and was held to a scoreless draw against Russia April 17. At halftime, Korea led France 2 to one on goals from midfielder Park Ji-sung and forward Seol Ki-hyeon. From the beginning of the second half, France came out aggressively to redeem its loss. In the 53rd minute, Youri Djorkaeff sent the ball into the box and second-half substitute Christophe Dugarry got to the right side of Song Chong-guk to head the ball home, making it 2 to 2. Zidane slipped a pass in the 33rd minute through the Korean defense to Trezeguet, just inside the penalty area, who turned into the corner but he was just judged to be offside. Three minutes later Zidane limped off with an apparent thigh injury. Wiltord replaced him. After the match, France's coach Roger Lemerre was quoted as saying that he was very suprised at the improvement of the Korean team.