France midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni insists they have the perfect blend of youth and experience to lift the World Cup again.
The reigning champions face Argentina on Sunday having reached the final despite missing a huge cast list of big names like Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Karim Benzema.
That has thrust Real Madrid midfielder Tchouameni into the heart of a new-look France team which now has a younger generation in the squad than from four years ago.
Olivier Giroud, Hugo Lloris, Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe all won the World Cup in Russia but now they also have a mix of youth and experience.
Tchouameni, 22, says France can now rely on the experienced, older heads but they will also look to the younger players to help them create history by retaining the trophy.
Tchouameni said: “We have other people in our team who have already won the World Cup but we also have a lot of young players in our team.
“We don’t have a lot of experience as a young player but we earn experience game by game so we are ready to fight until the end to win this title.
“We are confident that we want to do everything as a team to be able to win all the games. I think we have done a great job since the beginning of this tournament and we just have one game now to make history. We will do everything to win this game.
“For sure our ambition is to win the next game to have a new title for our country. We are focused, we want to stick together, to recover well and to be ready for the next game.”
Tchouameni has become an integral player for France in this tournament as he and Adrien Rabiot have formed a strong understanding while he played alongside Youssouf Fofana in the semi final.
France were pre-tournament favourites but the absence of Pogba and Kante looked a big blow until Tchouameni showed he can step in.
He said: “Those are great players and unfortunately they are not there because they are injured so we try to do our best to be able to help the team in the middle of the pitch. I think we have done a great job.
“My role sometimes is to recover some balls like against Morocco and sometimes I have the opportunity to score a goal like the last game or today with almost assists for Kylian and Olivier so it is a mix between those.”
But Tchouameni insists that, despite France reaching the final, they will not class anything as a success unless they win it. Tchouameni added: “We just want to stay focused because at the end of the day we have just reached the final. We haven’t won anything. We want to stay together and to stay calm because we have a big game left.”
Meanwhile, Griezmann has claimed that Lionel Messi has the ability to lift Argentina to a different level and will be a huge threat in the final.
Griezmann added: “Any team with Messi in is a totally different proposition. We have seen practically all of their matches at this World Cup. We have seen Argentina play, we know how they play. They are a difficult team to play and they seem to be on top form.
“Of course, not only Messi, they have a strong side around him so we know it is going to be a tough game and they will have a lot of support in the crowd. We will get back to work tomorrow, focused on how we can hurt them, how we can defend against them. We will be well prepared.”
