Kluivert: Great goal (SBotterill/Allsport)

France, meanwhile, will play Spain in Bruges and French coach Roger Lemerre will not have been too dismayed in defeat after witnessing his second-string side more than match a full-strength Holland for much of this thrilling encounter.

What a delight to witness football as it should be played. Precision passing, silky technique, a thrilling rhythm and a pulsating tempo.

Throw in a quite fantastic 25-yard swerving, swinging free-kick from Dutch captain Frank De Boer and the skills on show tonight could easily have graced the final, for which this might well have been a dress rehearsal.

It was a game neither of these two sides who had already qualified for the next stage wanted to lose, but more importantly one in which they did not want to suffer needless injuries.

To that end France were able to rest Fabien Barthez, Bixente Lizarazu, Laurent Blanc, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram and Nicolas Anelka - perhaps one of the most talented line-ups ever to sit on a substitutes' bench.

By comparison the Dutch, unsurprisingly in front of their own supporters, were virtually at full strength - their need to prove themselves greater than the French who had purred along thus far in these championships.

But it was the French who took the lead, taking advantage of some abject Dutch marking as early as the eighth minute.

It came from a corner taken by Johan Micoud, his swirling cross evading Holland's big defenders and finding the head of Christophe Dugarry who powered the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld, who was making his third appearance for Holland in place of the injured Edwin van der Sar. Not that the scoring in this uplifting match was ever likely to stop there.

Sure enough, six minutes later Patrick Kluivert broke clear courtesy of a drilled pass from Dennis Bergkamp.

And, with Chelsea's French defender Frank Leboeuf desperately claiming offside, Kluivert bore down on French goalkeeper Bernard Lama before thumping a powerful shot into the net.

The action was fast and lively and Bergkamp should have put the Dutch ahead when he hit his 15-yard shot into the ground, only to see it bounce up and ricochet back off the crossbar.

But Holland's fallibility at corners was once again exposed in the 31st minute when they failed to pick up their men, this time the ball breaking to Sylvain Wiltord, whose thunderous shot from 25-yards took a helpful deflection off David Trezeguet before flashing past Westerveld into the net.

Dugarry might have stretched France's lead immediately after the interval, but having been put through by Marcel Desailly he hit his shot straight at Westerveld.

It seemed the French were about to take command but then came the magical moment which swung the momentum in Holland's direction.

Frank De Boer placed a free-kick some 25 yards from the French goal and it seemed optimistic in the extreme to expect to score.

But De Boer's left-foot shot took off like a jet leaving an aircraft carrier, pitching and swerving until it flashed past Lama into the top right-hand corner.

Holland's third came via a much less prosaic route, a long hoofed ball out of defence eluding Bergkamp and the French defence before falling to Boudewijn Zenden whose pace took him deep into the French penalty area before he unleashed an unstoppable shot which whistled past Lama.

The score 3-2 and still half an hour to go - the packed crowd could not complain about value for money at the Amsterdam Arena.

France continued to pour forward and it seemed an equaliser was inevitable when Robert Pires released Trezeguet in oceans of space, but this time the French striker shot straight at Westerveld.

As it was there was still time for substitute Aron Winter, a veteran of the 1988 European championship-winning Dutch squad, to come on in place of Bergkamp to equal the Dutch record of 82 international appearances held by Rudi Krol.