Only complacency can stop France winning World Cup in style

For the first time in this year’s World Cup I’m actually completely confident that France can cope with the weight of favouritism and beat Croatia in Moscow.

Football is full of unlikely unscripted moments but, barring an early French red card, I can only see my team winning and winning well.

It’s funny, in this tournament I’ve been critical of Didier Deschamps and his limited vision, his failure to adapt or be flexible, his caution.

Yet in this final the France head coach becomes a strength.

The only thing that can stop France, in my eyes, is complacency and Deschamps, a man who knows what it takes to win a World Cup final and a European Championship final as a player, is precisely the right man to ensure that doesn’t set in.

He’s been there and done it. In 1998 he was part of a team who grew into a tournament and 20 years later he’s doing exactly the same, this time as the manager of a side who really ought to win easily.

Croatia, of course, have been even more impressive in exceeding expectations but surely now they have to hit a wall.

They can protest all they like about being underrated, but three successive games going to extra-time and a day less to rest has to take its toll.

England weren’t good enough to be able to dictate the tempo to Croatia but France will.

And France, of course, have a player in N'Golo Kante who won’t allow Luka Modric to cast his spell on the match. Let’s face it, if Kante can keep Lionel Messi quiet he can do it to anyone.

And that’s Croatia’s dilemma. If Modric tries to play further forward and influence his team in the final third, he’ll be suffocated by Kante.

To avoid that fate he sits in front of the back four and tries to dictate terms from there but inevitably he’s going to be that much less influential the deeper he plays.

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France won’t mind Modric having the ball in deep positions. France will simply knock the ball around as they do and look to unleash the incredible Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann on the counter. And if France go ahead and Croatia have to chase, they will be taken apart at will.

I’m absolutely certain that Dejan Lovren has at least one more huge error in him.

And I’m also confident that referee Nestor Pitana will clamp down on Croatia's rough-house tactics. There’s no doubt in my mind that Pierluigi Collina, the head of Fifa refs, has told officials to ignore a lot of stuff to keep games flowing. That means a lot of dirty teams have been getting away with some near-the-knuckle behaviour.

Referee Cuneyt Cakir let Croatia off with far too much against England but surely now is the time – with no suspensions to worry about – for referee Pitana to officiate by the letter. And that ought to work in France’s favour.

This final is about matchwinners and France have more of them. Paul Pogba has come of age as a player and he can now influence big games and not go missing.

There’s nothing left to be said about Mbappe that hasn’t been said before. He is already a superstar and the sky is the limit for the teenager.

The young defence, who was supposed to be a liability, have risen to the occasion though memories of the three goals they conceded against Argentina remain a reality check.

I look at both benches and I only see potential matchwinners on the French side.

In France we knew something special was coming. Like England we have a youthful group, full of promise and many, many more young talents on the horizon. Many of us thought 2018 would be a cycle too soon for them but hopefully we’re about to be proved wrong.

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