An excellent World Cup opening continued last night with France's emphatic 3-0 win over South Africa. We all know how important it can be for a tournament if the host country starts to play well and have a good run and that is exactly what France now seem set to do.

France won comfortably, they dominated the game, made lots of chances and managed to make South Africa look a very ordinary side in the process. Curiously it was the injury enforced substitution of striker Stephane Guivarc'h which changed the game for the home country.

Guivarc'h was replaced by Christophe Dugarry who immediately had a goal scoring chance, then opened the scoring with a header from a corner and went on to be involved in the second French goal with his long throw. All in all, France impressed me a lot. They look very tight at the back, solid and industrious in midfield in the person of Didier Deschamps while Zinedine Zidane provides the genuinely creative touch.

If I have reservations about France, they concern their goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, who simply does not convince me, and their attack. Coach Aimee Jacquet has to make up his mind between Guivarc'h, Dugarry and the Franco-Argentine David Trezeguet for the role of central target man. However, those are minor gripes about a side that is already looking very good.

One thing that France definitely learned yesterday was that Denmark are serious Group rivals. I know their goal in their 1-0 win against Saudi Arabia yesterday was a long time coming, but I was glad to see them win because they are the sort of side who always come out to play, while the Saudis were a bit negative.

Denmark are positive, strong, physical and direct and those are qualities that make for good soccer. On top of that, they have genuine world class talent in players like goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and the Laudrup brothers, Michael and Brian. Even after only three days, it is already clear that bold, attacking soccer will be rewarded at France 98 and in that context, Denmark are the kind of side I want to see advance in the tournament.

In contrast, I did not feel sorry for Saudi Arabia. They were very organised, played with a lot of men behind the ball but they did not provide much cause for Danish concern. I imagine that their game plan had been to soak up as much pressure as possible and then maybe try to sneak something out of the game.

Saudi Arabia, too, like Morocco on Wednesday and Cameroon on Thursday, showed themselves to be defensively very weak. You would always fancy your chances of scoring against all three, especially in the air - as witness Norway's two goals against Morocco.

Such defensive weakness is a pity since both Morocco and Cameroon have already showed explosive attacking potential. Both Mustapha Hadji's goal and that of his team mate Camatcho Hadda were minor masterpieces of technical virtuosity while Njanka's goal for Cameroon was simply the best of the tournament so far.