BRUGES, Belgium, June 11 (Reuters) - World Champions France needed 15 minutes to warm up their engine before cruising to a stylish 3-0 defeat of Denmark in their opening Euro 2000 match on Sunday.

After the defence, backbone of their 1998 World Cup success, survived a few early stutters France dominated the game against a hard-working but outclassed Danish side.

A first-half goal from defender Laurent Blanc, a brilliant solo strike from forward Thierry Henry and an injury-time effort from substitute Sylvain Wiltord sealed victory.

'When a team win 3-0 against Denmark you can only be satisfied,' said France coach Roger Lemerre. European champions in 1984, France fielded seven of their World Cup final-winning side for the opening game in the toughest group in the tournament, Group D.

The game would have been much tighter if French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez had not made two excellent saves in the first 15 minutes to deny Danish forwards Ebbe Sand and Jon Dahl Tomasson.

The Manchester United-bound 'keeper blocked Tomasson's close-range effort with his foot in the second minute and dived low to the right to deny Sand 10 minutes later.

But the French, inspired by a confident perfomance in the middle of the park by Zinedine Zidane, soon settled down and Blanc's goal settled their nerves. It came in the 16th minute came after a penetrating run by Nicola Anelka into the box wich forced Danish keeper Peter Schmeichel to dive at his feet.

But Schmeichel could only deflect the ball to his left and Blanc pounced to strike it into an empty net.

'Barthez woke us up with two saves in the first 10 minutes,' Zidane said. 'After that we felt better. Now we know that we can score at any moment during the game.'

The speed Henry showed to score France's second in the 64th minute shattered Czech morale. The Arsenal striker had threatened the Danes, surprise champions in 1992, with his blistering pace several times in the first half.

He left the defence floundering with a run from his own half into the box after a pass from Zidane before placing the ball into the far right-hand corner.

Wiltord's goal emphasised the gulf in class between the two sides, the striker scoring into an empty goal from a cross by fellow substitute Patrick Vieira.

'The French were just fantastic,' Danish coach Bo Johansson said. 'When you sit and watch a player like Zidane, you just enjoy it. We did what we could.'

Henry's individual effort came after the French had had to absorb a period of Danish pressure during which Stig Tofting forced Barthez into a difficult block low to his left with a long-range free kick.

'We played well. It was a good start,' Lemerre said. 'We showed a lot of will and we were stubborn. They deserve a lot of respect for that.'