Well, that was a day of two halves. At one point of the morning’s opening session here at the 42nd Ryder Cup, the visiting Americans had splattered so much red on the board it looked like the floor of an abattoir.

By the end of an absorbing, fluctuating, pulsating and inspiring series of golfing events, however, it was the US who were bloodied as the rampaging Europeans turned the scoreboard as blue as some of those mildly erotic French movies. Well, so I’ve heard anyway.

Team Europe’s purposeful, profitable 4-0 whitewash of the afternoon foursomes – a first ever clean-sweep in that format and a first 100 per cent showing since a fourballs rout at The Belfry in 1989 – thrust the hosts into a 5-3 overall lead after they had ended the morning encounters 3-1 behind.

It was a thoroughly dominant display and one which must have sooked a considerable amount of confidence and optimism out of the Americans.

Jim Furyk’s men showed little fight or spirit over the course of an abject, error-strewn afternoon as Thomas Bjorn’s buoyant boys grabbed proceedings by the scruff of the neck and held it in a double nelson.

The pummelling in Paris, the slaughter in St Quentin en Yvelines? Whatever you want to call it, Europe doled it out.

There is plenty of golf to play, of course, and the capricious nature of the matchplay format can easily produce more major swings and roundabouts but the dinner in the European team room must have tasted pretty nice last night.

As for the US? Furyk must have felt like sending them to bed without their supper. Statistically, this is the strongest US side ever assembled on the basis of world rankings but they were a sorry lot in the afternoon as they simply struggled to cope with the abundant rigours of Le Golf National and huffed and puffed their way to a crippling combined team tally of 11-over.

Furyk’s decision to pair Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau in the foursomes proved to be as farcical as a Jacques Tati comedy as they went here, there and everywhere in a miserable 5&4 defeat to the terrific Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren. Mickelson has now lost 21 matches in the Ryder Cup arena, the most by any American. Furyk himself lost 20.

The US were the big losers during a deflating afternoon. They looked like winners in the morning, though as they seized the initiative in a topsy-turvy tussle. Just before 11 am, Europe were up in three of the four matches. Just over half an hour later they were down in three as the ebb and flow washed in the USA’s favour. Only the combined heroics of the superb Tommy Fleetwood and the metronomic efficiency of Open champion Francesco Molinari prevented another 4-0 thrashing that had put Europe on the back foot in 2016 at Hazeltine.

Their late thrust – they birdied 15, 16 and 17 – which handed them a vital 3&1 win over Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed in the final match of the session gave the home side some much needed hope and momentum.

“Two guys stand up in the end and hole putts to win the match when it matters, that makes a difference,” said Bjorn. “It gives them belief but it gives their team-mates hope.

If anybody needed a jolt, it was Rory McIlroy. He was the only player from either side not to make a birdie in the fourballs as he sagged to a 4&2 defeat in the company of Thorbjorn Olesen to Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler.

When the Northern Irishman’s name re-appeared again for the foursomes, many were questioning Bjorn’s judgment. It was all right on the night though and after notching his first birdie of the day at the sixth hole in partnership with Ian Poulter, the duo’s 4&2 defeat of Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson was a timely tonic.

“You have to persist,” said a defiant McIlroy. “Persist, persist, persist until it turns around for you. The morning wasn’t ideal, but it was still a better start than the one we got off to at Hazeltine.”

That was true. The Europeans came out fighting in the afternoon. Garcia was flung into the fray alongside French Open champion Noren and the duo dovetailed delightfully. Four birdies on the first seven holes against the beleaguered Mickelson and DeChambeau had them on easy street.

Garcia has now won 23½ points in the Ryder Cup, drawing level with Colin Montgomerie while inching closer to Nick Faldo’s all-time record of 25. Who said giving the hitherto out of form Spaniard a wild card was a bad idea?

Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson reprised a tried and trusted partnership to dominate the top match against Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler while Fleetwood and Molinari, superb in the morning, conjured another magical show against the potent combination of Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. A 5&4 victory continued a thunderous stampede which was akin to something you’d see on a nature programme about wildebeest migration.

“I guess it was two tales,” said Furyk as he reflected on the day’s mixed fortunes. “But we played for eight points so far out of 28. The event’s still pretty young and a pretty small percentage of this golf tournament has been played.”

This is an event of small margins, though. The US need to pick themselves up quickly. The Europeans, meanwhile, are walking tall.