Van Persie gets van Gaal off to a flyer
The Manchester United striker opened the scoring in the 16th minute and Luciano Narsingh added a second in stoppage time as the Dutch registered a morale-boosting victory following their poor Euro 2012 showing.
The hosts were made to fight all the way in a keenly contested Group D opener, but got the job done to hand Louis van Gaal a win in his first competitive outing following his return to the national team for a second spell as coach.
Georgi Milanov’s second-half strike rescued a point for Bulgaria, who held Euro 2012 finalists Italy to a 2-2 draw in both sides’ opening World Cup qualifying match.
The hosts took a shock lead on the half-hour when Stanislav Manolev’s 35-yard strike rocketed past Gianluigi Buffon but Pablo Osvaldo’s scored twice in three minutes to put the Azzurri ahead at the interval.
But Italy were pegged back as Milanov fired high into the net from Iliyan Mitsanski’s cross to ensure a share of the spoils in encounter in Group B, where Armenia went top after Artur Sarkisov’s 70th-minute strike gave them a 1-0 win over Malta.
Cristiano Ronaldo shrugged off his recent sadness with a thrilling goal-scoring performance in Portugal’s opening 2014 World Cup qualification game against Luxembourg.
The Portugal midfielder drew his side level just before the half-hour mark after Daniel Da Mota Alves gave Luxembourg the lead, before he made a nuisance of himself in a top-class performance which saw Helder Postiga’s strike earn the visitors a well deserved 2-1 win.
Nikica Jelavic’s opportunist 68th-minute header got Igor Stimac’s reign as Croatia coach off to a winning start against Macedonia.
Jelavic headed in from close range after connecting with an Ivan Perisic cross to seal the points for the hosts, who were made to battle for their 1-0 victor.
Ten-man Wales kicked off their World Cup qualifying campaign with a defeat as goals from Vincent Kompany and Jan Vertonghen gave Belgium a 2-0 victory in Cardiff.
Injury-hit Wales had made a solid start against the Group A favourites but their good work was undone when James Collins was shown a straight red for a reckless lunge on Guillaume Gillet after 25 minutes.
Manchester City skipper Kompany capitalised to give the visitors the lead with a header three minutes before the break, with Vertonghen sealing the three points with an unstoppable free-kick late on.
Nevertheless manager Chris Coleman was delighted with his players’ efforts.
“I’m very, very proud of the players first and foremost. We knew it was going to be a tough game.
“Coming into this game at full strength would have been tough but we weren’t at full strength and then we go down to 10 men.
“One or two questionable decisions went against us to say the least but the players, to a man I thought, were absolutely magnificent.’’
Northern Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign got off to a losing start as goals from Viktor Fayzulin and Roman Shirokov gave Fabio Capello’s Russia a 2-0 win in Moscow.
The visitors set-up to steal a point and for half-an-hour looked as though they might, only for Fayzulin to break the deadlock with a smart finish from eight yards.
Russia’s second came from a hotly-disputed penalty, Shirokov coolly converting after left-back Craig Cathcart had been harshly treated by the referee.
Abou Diaby scored the only goal as France edged past Finland1-0 in their opening 2014 World Cup qualifier.
The Arsenal midfielder made the breakthrough in the 20th minute in the Group I game where chances and shots on target were few and far between as France got off to a winning start.
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