Florian Wirtz

The 20-year-old Bayer Leverkusen forward struck moments after kick-off as the Euro 2024 hosts stunned the tournament favourites.

There was also an immediate assist for Toni Kroos, back in a Germany shirt three years after announcing his international retirement.

Straight from the whistle, the 34-year-old chipped the ball forward to Wirtz, who had darted to midway inside the France half.

Wirtz controlled the ball, took two more touches as he strolled forward before lashing his shot home from 20 yards.

It was the youngster’s first goal for his country and would have been the fastest international goal on record had Austria’s Christoph Baumgartner not opened the scoring after six seconds in his country’s friendly against Slovakia earlier on Saturday.

The previous quickest was Lukas Podolski’s strike for Germany against Ecuador in 2013.

France dominated the rest of the first half but Marcus Thuram side-footed their first decent chance over the crossbar from the edge of the box.

Kylian Mbappe then brought down a cross in the area only to shank his shot wide, before Aurelien Tchouameni skied a cross from Ousmane Dembele.

But Germany made it to half-time in front and promptly doubled their lead three minutes into the second half.

Wirtz turned provider, lifting the ball into the path of Jamal Musiala, who drove diagonally round France goalkeeper Brice Samba.

The Bayern Munich winger reached the byline before pulling the ball back for Arsenal forward Havertz to slot in his 15th international goal.

Mbappe, enduring a quiet evening, got himself booked after a tussle with Robert Andrich before firing an ambitious shot wide.

Stuttgart defender Maximilian Mittelstadt almost made it a debut to remember 10 minutes from full-time when he strode forward and fired goalwards.

His shot looked destined to nestle inside the far post until Samba stretched to get a fingertip to the ball and divert it wide.

Samba also denied Thomas Muller with a fine one-handed save after the substitute shot from 14 yards.

Mittelstadt was spared a comical own goal late on by a goal-line clearance from Antonio Rudiger, who sliced the ball onto his own crossbar to cap an ultimately disappointing night for the French.

Wirtz has emerged as one of the most highly rated attacking midfielders in world football, starring for Xabi Alonso's team as they went unbeaten to become Bundesliga champions in 2023-24.

He was named Bundesliga Player of the Year after scoring 11 goals and adding 11 assists, also helping Die Werkself win the DFB-Pokal to make it a double.

The likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Manchester United have all been linked with a move for Wirtz, while German media reports claim he is Bayern's top long-term target.

Wirtz is under contract at the BayArena until 2027, though, and he will not contemplate his club future while Julian Nagelsmann's side prepare for next week's Euros opener against Scotland.

"Everyone knows my contract," Wirtz told Sky Sports in Germany. "It's not the moment to talk about it now. 

"I'm definitely having a very good time at Leverkusen, I feel good. In my head it's now 100 per cent about the European Championship. I don't care about anything else right now."

Wirtz has won 17 senior caps for his country, scoring his first international goal in an impressive friendly win over France in March.

Euro 2024 will be the fourth major international tournament to be hosted solely by Germany (or West Germany prior to unification).

They reached at least the semi-finals at the previous three, beating Johan Cruyff's iconic Netherlands side in the 1974 World Cup final and going out in the last four at Euro 1988 and the 2006 World Cup.

However, they have not won a single knockout game at a major tournament since Euro 2016. They suffered back-to-back group-stage exits at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and were beaten by England in the last 16 at Euro 2020.