Mbappe struck as France began campaign with win over Ukraine

In the Polish city of Wroclaw, Michael Olise's early strike and Mbappe's 51st goal for Les Bleus handed the 2018 World Cup winners a 2-0 victory over Ukraine as Group D got underway.

"It was an important match because of the limited number of games (to qualify) against a quality team. We could have sealed the deal in the first half because we were in control and created a lot of chances," Deschamps said.  "We faltered for four or five minutes in the second half, but the main thing is that we got the result."

Olise started and finished the opening goal on 10 minutes when he released Bradley Barcola down the left flank from deep. The Bayern Munich man ghosted the length of the pitch to arrive unmarked into the Ukraine box and calmly sweep Barcola's return ball into the bottom corner.

Olise and half-time substitute Ousmane Dembele nearly doubled the visitors' lead either side of the break but goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin denied them impressively. Ukraine responded by coming within inches of levelling the encounter twice inside two minutes after the hour.

Ibrahima Konate first turned a goalbound Artem Dovbyk header off his own goal-line, before new Paris Saint-Germain signing Illia Zabarnyi struck the woodwork with a headed effort following a set-piece. But Mbappe made the win safe for France when he raced onto a pinpoint through-ball from his Real Madrid team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni before cutting inside and rifling home on 82 minutes.

Deschamps had praise, in particular, for 23-year-old Olise after he netted his third goal in nine outings for Les Bleus. "Michael is brilliant in everything he does, his movement, his combinations, his passing quality," the coach said. After the first matchday, France sit second in the four-team group behind Iceland, who beat Azerbaijan 5-0 in Reykjavik.

Elsewhere, Denmark and Scotland played out a goalless stalemate in Copenhagen as Group C started, with Greece topping the pool following their 5-1 victory at home to Belarus. Switzerland opened Group B with a 4-0 win over Kosovo as group mates Sweden and Slovenia played out a 2-2 draw in Ljubljana.

Former World Cup runners-up Croatia struggled to a 1-0 win away to Faroe Islands to stay second in Group L. Pool leaders Czech Republic beat third-placed Montenegro 2-0 to remain three points ahead of the Croats, although with two games in hand.