Two David Silva goals gave new Spain coach Julen Lopetegui the ideal start with a 2-0 win that ensured a tough debut for his Belgium counterpart Roberto Martinez in a friendly yesterday.

Lopetegui, who has succeeded the retiring Vicente Del Bosque, celebrated victory as his side largely dominated the match and showed far more threat in attack before a home crowd that showed their frustration at times with boos and whistles.

Spain’s opener in the 34th minute came when Vitolo got behind the defence, dragging goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois towards him, and cut back for Silva to score.

Silva struck his second from the penalty spot after Jordan Lukaku brought down Vitolo just after the hour mark.

Spaniard Martinez, the ex-Everton manager who succeeded the sacked Marc Wilmots, began his term with largely the same players who lost to Wales in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals and has a lot of work ahead to craft them into a world-class team.

The two countries were due to play each other last November but the match was cancelled after Brussels went into lockdown following the Paris attacks.

Spain begin their World Cup qualifying campaign at home to Liechtenstein on Monday.

Belgium visit Cyprus the next day.

Holland’s bid to put the ignominy of failing to reach Euro 2016 behind them emphatically failed as they lost 2-1 at home to Greece.

Goals from Konstantinos Mitroglou and Giannis Gianniotas turned the game on its head after Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener in Eindhoven as defeat turned up the heat on Holland boss Danny Blind.

The Dutch were the most high-profile side not to qualify for the Euros, finishing in fourth place in their group, behind the

Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey.

They would have been hoping to go into their World Cup qualifying campaign, which starts in Sweden on Tuesday, on the back of a morale-boosting win, particularly against a Greece side which performed so awfully in their Euro qualifying campaign that they finished it bottom of a group containing the Faroe Islands.

Instead the hosts were left to reflect on another setback  ahead of their expected battle with France for the one automatic qualifying spot from Group A for Russia 2018.

France beat Italy

France, the beaten finalists at the Euros, claimed an impressive 3-1 win away to Italy.

Anthony Martial put the visitors ahead, only for Graziano Pelle to level the scores for the Azzurri who were under the charge of new coach Giampiero Ventura.

But Olivier Giroud made it 2-1 before the half-hour mark and Lavyin Kurzawa added a late third.