WRAPUP 2-Soccer-Euro-Dutch light up tournament on and off pitch

(Updates after second match, adds quotes)

By Mitch Phillips

VIENNA, June 9 (Reuters) - The Netherlands lit up Euro 2008 on Monday with a landmark performance to stun world champions Italy 3-0 while their wonderful fans delivered an example of colourful, noisy but peaceful support.

It was the Netherlands' first win over the Italians in nine attempts spanning 30 years -- their last success coming in the 1978 World Cup -- and Italy's worst-ever defeat in a European Championship.

It also put the Dutch in early control of the fearsome Group C after France were earlier held to a 0-0 draw by unfancied Romania in a dire game in Zurich.

"I'm happy and proud but it is only a first step," said Dutch coach Marco van Basten, a winner of the championship in 1988 as a player, in a news conference.

The Italian team could only apologise and promise to lift their game. "On behalf of my team mates, I feel I must apologise to all the fans; they, like us, did not expect this result," Italy skipper and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon told Italian TV.

On Sunday, there had been 157 arrests of mainly German fans after aggressive exchanges with their Polish counterparts in Klagenfurt but up to 40,000 Dutch, clad in their traditional orange attire, swarmed all over Berne without a hint of trouble.

After a day of drinking and singing in the Swiss capital, Dutch spirits were further lifted once the game got underway.