France have arrived on schedule to the second phase of the World Cup safely, if at times without the swagger demanded by their supporters in the Stade De France.

A mission which was never less than intimidating for Saudi Arabia was rendered impossible with the dismissal of their central defender Mohammed Al Khalaiwi after only 20 minutes.

Later, his embarrassment was shared by the French captain, Zinedine Zidane, sent off for stamping. At that stage, the course of the game had been irreversibly set, with the depleted Saudis under almost constant pressure.

Ultimately, their willing legs gave out and three goals in the last 22 minutes completed the disintegration of a defence which had earlier performed bravely to stem the rising tide of pressure.

For the second game in succession, the French were flattered by the scoreline. However, for many of the neutrals in the 80,000 crowd it was the performance of the Mexican referee, Arturo Carter Brizio, rather than the late strikes, which provided the evening's big talking point.

The wheels of justice grind slowly and, at times, questionably in football and the Saudis, with little or no clout in the places that matter, quickly came to realise this in their second consecutive defeat.

Earlier in the day, FIFA's powerbrokers had met with the championship's technical committee to voice their disquiet at the implementation - or rather the lack of it - of the new rules governing the tackle. And Senor Brizio quickly demonstrated that he understood the likely consequences of any dereliction of duty by producing a red card for Al Khalaiwi for a foul on Bernard Diomede that possibly owed more to naivety than malice.

Later, the referee resisted the temptation to dismiss two French players, first when goalkeeper Fabien Barthez came off his line to confront Sami Al Jaber with both feet off the ground, and then when Bixente Lizarazu deliberately took out Barthez after the Saudis, in a rare moment of prosperity, had created an overlap.

Undeniably, players here have been guilty of the most outrageous instances of diving, but the effect of yesterday's FIFA edict will be to exacerbate rather than solve the problem, with every risk of bringing the game into disrepute.

Yet, it has to be stressed that for all the chaos in the interpretation of rules, France were wholly deserving of success, a point quickly conceded by the Saudis' manager, Carlos Parreira.

"The result was a fair reflection of the technical differences between the sides," he said. "France have some good players whom I would come to watch. Now they will be a very difficult team to beat."

That Zidane should be sent off for a bad foul on Hussein Suli mani was vaguely ironic, for he was easily the most elegant player on the pitch, even if he was guilty of a shocking miss in front of goal in the first half. The wages of his sending-off could be serious for France, for while their remaining qualifying game against Denmark is now meaningless, he may now also be out of the first match in the knockout phase.

And while players like Lilian Thuram, Didier Deschamps and, not least, Lizarazu caught the eye with some marvellous touches yesterday, it is undeniably Zidane's qualities which give France real class.

Another blot on victory was the injury which necessitated Christophe Dugarry's departure with a damaged hamstring after half an hour and which may now make him doubtful for their upcoming games.

It was Zidane's superb return ball to Lazarazu which destroyed the Saudi defence for the opening goal, after 37 minutes of frenzied but unsuccessful pressure. Liza razu took it to the byeline before crossing for Thierry Henry to score the first of his two goals.

Saudi Arabia's goal had lived dangerously on at least five occasions in the third quarter before disaster overtook their gallant goalkeeper, Mohammed Al Dayea, for France's second goal in the 68th minute. He had the monumental misfortune to allow Thuram's cross to slip through his fingers, leaving Dugarry's replacement, David Trezeguet, with the simple task of heading in.

After that the Saudis were in freefall and as one error followed another, Henry and Lizarazu added further goals to complete an emphatic French success.