NICOSIA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - France, humbled at the World Cup finals, avoided a humiliating start to the defence of their European crown as they came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win over Cyprus in their opening group one qualifier on Saturday.

Cyprus have never reached the finals of a major tournament but they scared an anxious French team by opening the scoring through Ioannis Okkas after just 15 minutes.

The European champions, without top strikers David Trezeguet and Thierry Henry, equalised after 38 minutes thanks to Djibril Cisse and went ahead when Sylvain Wiltord struck on 52 mintues.

The victory was a great relief for France, who had not won in their previous four matches after earlier this year suffering the embarrassment of becoming the first defending champions to be knocked out of the World Cup in the first round for 36 years.

Their last win was the 3-2 defeat of co-hosts South Korea in a May friendly before they finished with the worst record of any champions in the 72-year history of the tournament.

'The challenge here was to win since France had not had success for quite a long time,' said relieved coach Jacques Santini. 'It's good to take three points away when you are playing a championship.

'It was most important for the players as it's going to give them some confidence back. But now we must gear up as everything was far from perfect tonight.'

It was clear from the start that France were vulnerable to counter-attacks as the central defensive pairing of Barcelona's Philippe Christanval and Chelsea's Marcel Desailly struggled.

'Regarding the defence, I would say the players didn't do what they were supposed to,' Santini said. 'Especially in the first half, we made too many mistakes.'

FINE LOB

Striker Okkas, the only player in Cyprus's starting line-up to play abroad, put the home side in front with their first real opportunity after just 15 minutes.

German-born Rainer Rauffmann, who earned his first cap for Cyprus since becoming a citizen in January, crossed for Okkas who foiled midfielder Claude Makelele and delivered a fine lob from inside the box to beat goalkeeper Gregory Coupet.

Once ahead the Cypriots, who had a terrible World Cup qualifying campaign, started to believe they could achieve another upset like their 3-2 win over Spain two years ago.

But France, who began with an unfamiliar 4-3-3 formation, fought back as young striker Cisse scored his first goal for France with a powerful left-foot shot from close range.

Before the kick-off Santini had made it clear that a draw would not be good enough for the defending champions and France moved up a gear in the second half.

In-form Arsenal forward Wiltord unleashed a powerful 20-metre shot to give them the lead shortly after the break.

Cisse then had a clear chance to put the result beyond doubt on the hour but goalkeeper Nikos Panayiotou dramatically saved the powerful cross shot from the AJ Auxerre striker.

In the dying minutes, Cyprus tried everything to avoid defeat as they fielded three strikers but the French defence, looking a little bit more at ease, held on.

'Despite losing here I would pay tribute to my guys as we have played really well tonight, especially defensively,' said Cyprus coach Moka Vukotic.

'We knew that it was going to be tough to beat the European champions but we managed to put a lot of pressure on them. And this is promising for the future.'