France beat Ukraine 2-0 on Friday (Saturday AEST) to open their qualifying group for the 2026 World Cup.
It was Les Bleus' and Mbappe's first game in the competition since his hat-trick in that epic loss to Lionel Messi and Argentina in the 2022 final when they were defending champions.
Mbappe used pace and skill to elude Ukraine defender Illia Zabarnyi in the 82nd minute to extend a lead earned in the 10th by Michael Olise.
Mbappe has never played at a World Cup that Italy qualified for, and the four-time champions got an essential 5-0 home win over Estonia seeking to end their absence from the biggest stage since 2014.
His 51st career goal for France, in 91 games, was made at Real Madrid. Mbappe took a long pass from deep in the France half by his club teammate Aurelien Tchouameni before outclassing Illia Zabarnyi, the new Paris Saint-Germain signing.
One sour note of France's victory was when Ousmane Dembele limped off injured, just 12 days before Paris Saint-Germain begins the defence of their Champions League title.
Dembele went on as a substitute for the second half against Ukraine and lasted less than 35 minutes. He left with what seemed to be a right hamstring injury, walking to the bench with his right hand pressed to the back of his right thigh.
In Bergamo, Italy opened Gennaro Gattuso's reign with a 5-0 home win over Estonia, wasting chances for almost an hour before exploding in the final stages of the second half to turn dominance into a rout.
The spotlight was on new Italy manager Gattuso, with his side on the back foot in Group I after a 3-0 defeat at Norway in June that cost coach Luciano Spalletti his job.
Italy sit third in their group on six points from three games, with Norway leading on 12 and Israel second with nine, both having played a match more. In the same group, Israel won at Moldova 4-0.
Greece and Switzerland got off to fast starts to their qualifying campaigns, racing to four-goal leads at halftime.
Switzerland ended as 4-0 winners over Kosovo and Greece beat Belarus 5-1 after 17-year-old Kostas Karetsas took less than three minutes to score in his World Cup qualifying debut.
Sweden were twice pegged back in a 2-2 draw at Slovenia - who levelled for the second time in the 90th minute - while leaving Liverpool's record new signing Aleksander Isak on the bench after his delayed start to the season.
Croatia, beaten finalists and semi-finalists at the past two World Cups, won at the Faeroe Islands by just 1-0 for a third straight win. The group-leading Czech Republic won 2-0 at Montenegro.
In France's group, Iceland won 5-0 at home to Azerbaijan.
Denmark were held to 0-0 at home by Scotland in the group that Greece now lead.
- with Reuters
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