Antoine Griezmann scored the first penalty given by VAR in World Cup history as France edged past Australia 2-1 in their Group C opener.

It was a rare moment of fluency from the French, however, with the much vaunted attack of Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele unable to create opportunities when pace alone was not enough to get past the wall of Australian defenders.

Uruguayan referee Andres Cunha checked the goal-line monitor on his watch and awarded the goal as Australia keeper Mat Ryan stood holding the ball in his hands.

Earlier, it was a bad lack of concentration from Samuel Umtiti in the 60th minute that saw Australia's captain Mile Jedinak scoring the equaliser from the penalty spot for the Socceroos.

Didier Deschamps' side needed just six minutes to test Mathew Ryan in the Australia goal.

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Until France broke the deadlock it had been a tight game with Australia matching the World No.7 ranked team in all areas across the park.

Antoine Griezmann scored from the spot and Paul Pogba netted an 80th-minute victor as Les Bleus overcame a dogged Socceroos in the first game of their group.

There was an early shock for the Socceroos, with captain Mile Jedinak starting the match, despite being tipped to miss out on an opening berth to Massimo Luongo.

Umtiti's freaky decision to handle Mooy's free-kick allowed Jedinak to coolly stroke past Lloris for what looked like being a share of the spoils.

Australia weathered that early storm, though, and came agonisingly close to taking the lead after 17 minutes.

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France's Antoine Griezmann and Djibril Sidibe celebrate after the match.

The best effort of the half by either side came in the 18th minute from another free kick by Mooy, He found the head of Matthew Leckie and the ball was nearly forced home by Trent Sainsbury with Hugo Lloris having to dive to turn the ball around the post.

Australia rallied and started to push France back into their own half and although Deschamps's side responded, finding themselves evenly matched appeared to have a lasting effect and Australia were rarely threatened before the break.

Now they will face Denmark and Peru in their last two group games knowing that they have to come away with results but also knowing that with the set up that van Marwijk has put into place that they're more than capable of achieving their aim of qualifying for the next stage.

Deschamps had warned of the improvement Australia have made under Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk, who took over from Ange Postecoglou in January.

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