A depleted Netherlands side opened their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign with a comprehensive 4-0 defeat to France in Paris.

The World Cup finalists were too strong for an Oranje side that was missing Frenkie de Jong through injury and lost five players, including World Cup top scorer Cody Gakpo and defender Matthijs de Ligt, to a virus in midweek.

In the first competitive match of Ronald Koeman’s second stint as head coach, the Dutch were outclassed from the kick-off, with Ajax midfielder Kenneth Taylor losing possession under pressure twice in the first two minutes.

The second time was fatal as Antoine Griezemann pounced on a hesitation and played a one-two with Kylian Mbappé before sweeping the ball into the net.

Five minutes later Dayot Upamecano doubled the lead, bundling the ball past Jasper Cillessen after the entire defence froze at a free-kick.

And the French effectively had the game sewn up after 20 minutes as Kylian Mbappé ghosted past Lutsharel Geertruida before slotting the ball past Cillessen. It was Oranje’s worst start to a match since going 3-0 down to Sweden in 1919.

Taylor was replaced after 33 minutes by Wout Weghorst, but the giant Manchester United striker was unable to repeat his heroics in the World Cup against Argentina, when he scored twice to force extra time in the quarter-final.

Oranje threatened sporadically in the second half as France were content to soak up the pressure. Mbappé forced a good save from Cillessen after picking up a wayward backpass from substiute Davy Klaassen, but the World Cup’s top scorer made no mistake when he was allowed to run clear and fire in a fourth goal in the 88th minute.

A nightmare evening for Oranje was rounded off when Memphis Depay missed from the penalty spot in injury time.

Captain Virgil van Dijk was sober in his assessment of the team’s performance. ‘When you go 2-0 down after seven minutes it’s a hell of a task,’ he told NOS. ‘It was a bad start that left us playing catch-up, and with the quality they have it was an easy game for them.’

Koeman was frank about his team’s shortcomings after the game. ‘We made the kind of mistakes you can’t afford to make against a team of their quality,’ he said. ‘If you look at the first goal, we lost the ball 20 metres from our goal and they punished us for it.’

The Dutch play their second qualifying match on Monday night in Rotterdam against Gibraltar, who lost 3-0 at home to Greece.