Current world champions France are just a game away from achieving their goal as a win against Argentina in the final at Lusail Iconic Stadium Sunday will make them only the third team to win back-to-back World Cups after Italy in 1938 and Brazil in 1962.
Les Bleus missed out on the services of key personnel in Karim Benzema, Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante due to injuries prior to the tournament and are continuing to ride bad luck as several players have been hit by flu-like illness lately.
The Doha affair is likely to be the last World Cup match of football's megastar Lionel Messi and like every other occasion, he was present vividly in the opponent's pre-match press conference.
"Of course, we know what Messi means to the history of football. But this is a match between France and, at the end of the day, Argentina. There are some very good players in both squads and Argentina are very good competitors. We are looking forward to a great match," said captain and record French cap holder Hugo Lloris.
"Over the years Argentina has always produced some world-class players; [Diego] Maradona was a perfect example and now we've got Messi. They are legends of football.”
Lloris also led Les Bleus to the title in the last World Cup and sounded quite positive of repeating the feat.
“We started this World Cup with an objective to go as far as possible, and very few people believed in us at the outset. We are now in the final, four years after our last final, and we're going to pull out all the stops to try and win this game,” said the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper.
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This will be the first game for France in Lusail whereas Argentina have already played four matches here, with the number of Albiceleste fans only growing with each game.
Up to 40,000 are expected for the final against around 6,000 French fans, and head coach Didier Deschamps is well aware of the situation.
"I am well aware that Argentina will have a lot of fans behind them. I expect a festive atmosphere with the Argentine people who are passionate and will be right behind their team. They sing a lot and are very expressive. That's good, it's a World Cup final after all, but our opponents are not in the stands," the Frenchman said.
Several players were absent in Friday's training session due to a viral outbreak in the French camp.
Central defenders Raphael Varane and Ibrahima Konate, and winger Kingsley Coman were the latest to join the list followed by Adrien Rabiot and Dayot Upamecano, who were ruled out of Wednesday's semi-final where they beat Morocco.
Both Deschamps and Lloris did not give any further medical updates at the press conference and were waiting to assess the situation during final practice, scheduled for the afternoon.
"I left quite early this morning from the camp - they were all still asleep. I haven't had any recent updates,” said Deschamps, who can become the first coach to retain the World Cup since Italy's Vittorio Pozzo in 1938.
"We are trying to take as many precautions as possible, to adapt as necessary and get on with it. Obviously, it would be better if this wasn't happening but we are handling it as well as possible with our medical staff."
