The Socceroos matched the highly-fancied French for long periods in Kazan but went down 2-1 to an Antoine Griezmann penalty and an 81st-minute deflected strike by Paul Pogba, either side of Mile Jedinak's goal.

“There’s still mixed emotions. We’re Obviously disappointed because I think we deserved more,” Behich said.

“The performance we put in was different class against a tough opponent. I thought we deserved more but there was a lot of positives to take from this game.

“We should be proud of what we put in. We’ve still got two games to build on this performance. Our focus has already switched to the next game.”

Several weeks of preparations were over, and it was time for Bert van Marwijk's Australia side to demonstrate their worth as they opened their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign against France. A resilient defensive display was on show but two second-half strikes were enough for Les Blues to walk away with the three points.

Having scored three goals in as many matches in their last FIFA World Cup, the Socceroos opened their account courtesy of a Mile Jedinak penalty kick, but more attacking impetus will be required if they are to advance to the next round.

Antoine Griezmann scored from the first VAR-assisted penalty awarded in the history of the FIFA World Cup as title hopefuls France battled to a 2-1 win in Kazan.

Griezmann, expected to make a huge impact on Russia 2018 after topping the Euro 2016 scorers with six goals, was left frustrated by a solid Socceroos defensive display in a tight first half.

Aware that Sweden will pose a stiff challenge and chances could be at a premium, head coach Shin Tae-yong has had his players working on set-pieces behind closed doors.

This has been ongoing since Shin named the 23-player squad and such is his desire for the element of surprise that the Korea Republic coach decided against using any of the set-pieces in the friendly against Senegal last week, despite it being played behind closed doors.

Team Melli showed lots of grit and determination to overcome a talented Morocco side in their opening match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign on Friday.

Having not been able to create many chances, IR Iran were made to wait until the dying seconds to grab a winner as Ehsan Hajsafi's cross from a free-kick was sent into the back of the net by Bouhaddouz's misdirected flying header.

Four years after failing to win a game at Brazil 2014, a late change saw Japan replacing Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic with Akira Nishino last month.

Having suffered two 2-0 friendly defeats to Ghana and Switzerland under Nishino's leadership, Japan appeared to be set for another World Cup struggle.

But a 4-2 win over Paraguay before arriving in Russia rekindled belief among the squad that they can battle their way out of a group also featuring Senegal and Poland.

Juan Antonio Pizzi's side dominated possession and passed the ball accurately throughout the match but their lack of urgency meant they could not bring the ball into the final third and failed to record a single shot on target all night.

Defensively, the Green Falcons were far from their best as they allowed Russia to physically dominate and score at will despite not spending extended spells of time in the Saudi defensive third.