Playing their first competitive match without their inspirational playmaker who retired after the World Cup final in July, the French struck twice in the first 15 minutes to silence a capacity 55,000-strong home crowd.

Florent Malouda opened the scoring after seven minutes when he surprised Georgia keeper Grigol Chanturia with a 20-metre drive and Louis Saha doubled the lead with another low blast after a neat feed from Thierry Henry eight minutes later.

The visitors made it 3-0 less than a minute after the break to put the Group B encounter beyond doubt. Henry was credited with the goal which was inadvertently directed into his own net by Georgia fullback Malkhaz Asatiani.

The Georgians, under their new German manager Klaus Toppmoeller, were looking for an upset after thrashing Faroe Islands 6-0 in their opener two weeks ago.

But their game plan quickly turned sour as the French took control of the match, played in hot and humid conditions.

Georgia, missing captain Kakha Kaladze and fellow fullback Levan Tskitishvili through injury, appealed for a penalty midway through the first half when Shota Arveladze went down after a challenge from William Gallas but it was waved away by Dutch referee Jan Wegereef.

Urged on by a raucous home crowd including President Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia tried to penetrate a tight French defence in the second half to salvage some pride.

Their best chance came five minutes from time but Giorgi Demetradze's free kick hit the crossbar.

The match was marred by an incident late in the second half when a fan evaded security and ran onto the pitch. The fan hugged Henry before being taken away by police.

France coach Raymond Domenech, who included Claude Makelele in his starting lineup after recalling the Chelsea midfielder against his will last week, was fully satisfied.

"We could've played better but we'll take it," he said. "Tomorrow we'll start preparing for Italy."

His Georgian counterpart blamed bad defending for the loss.

"It's tough to come back when you fall 2-0 behind so early in the game," Toppmoeller said.

"As far as missing injured defenders, you can't really replace Kaladze, not in our team."

France now take on Italy in a rematch of the World Cup final at Paris's Stade de France in their next qualifier on Sept. 6 while Georgia travel to Ukraine.