Friday 10 June 2016 23:18, UK
Sky Sports' Voice of Football Martin Tyler is commentating for UEFA in France throughout Euro 2016 and he'll be sharing his thoughts on the colour and excitement of the event here on skysports.com. First up he reflects on the opening match and a big night for France…
I am in the French capital, but it was a case of London calling at the Stade de France tonight.
First of all Tottenham's Hugo Lloris made a superb save at the start of the match; then Arsenal's Olivier Giroud scored the opening goal of the tournament; before West Ham's Dimitri Payet scored the goal that sealed a tremendous win for France over Romania.
The result means France have lifted the curse of the opening match at European Championships. They are only the second host nation in the last eight to win the first game after Belgium in 2000.
Prior that, the last hosts to win their opening match were France themselves in 1984, who remain the last hosts to win a European Championship. I covered that tournament, which was defined by Michel Platini after he scored all those wonderful goals.
Now Payet has the chance to be the Platini of Euro 2016. Tonight he made one for Giroud and then scored a sensational goal and appeared very moved as he was substituted near the end of the game.
During my commentary for UEFA's world feed I commented with five minutes to go that France would surely get one more chance at 1-1 to win the game - but I was wrong! Payet's goal could hardly be described as a chance.
I'm still buzzing as I write this and my co-commentator, Alan Smith, said there won't be a better goal scored in the tournament.
Payet was deservedly named man of the match, even before his goal, and his name was called out four times to huge cheers as the players did a mini lap of honour at the end.
Meanwhile, Giroud has scored eight in eight now and seems to be winning the supporters over. In the last warm-up match against Scotland, Patrice Evra pointed to the name on the back of his shirt as if to say 'look, he's good' and he made an important contribution against Romania.
Alan has obviously been compared with Giroud, and despite failing to score with two good headed chances he kept going and got his goal eventually. It was nice to see the Premier League have such an impact on the first game.
I commented with five minutes to go that France would surely get one more chance at 1-1 to win the game - but I was wrong! Payet's goal could hardly be described as a chance.
It was a really good start to the tournament and the opening game can set the standard for what follows. For all of us out here it has really whetted our appetite for what lies ahead.
France might not be the most passionate football country in the world, but this tournament seems to have ignited the place and the atmosphere inside the stadium was absolutely excellent.
I must say, the opening ceremony had the most seamless transition into the match I have ever seen. It was almost as though the match was an extension of the ceremony itself.
The songs were being sung and then suddenly the Republican Guard and a choir appeared along with the players. It was totally seamless and very stylish.
I must admit the star of the opening ceremony, David Guetta, is not my cup of tea but Alan really loved it. He has been educating me over the last couple of days and it has been an important part of our preparation!
In all seriousness though, it's been a difficult build-up for France going into this tournament following the events of last November and the industrial problems taking place at the moment, so they deserved a good night.
With a little help from some of London's Premier League stars, they certainly had one.
