France face Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final on Sunday with Didier Deschamps and Zlatko Dalic desperate to secure one more win in Russia.
Croatia have put quite the run together in the knockout stage, going through three consecutive extra-time encounters with England the latest rival to be seen off in the semi-finals.
Prior to that, Dalic’s side defeated Denmark and Russia, while they finished top in their group which also contained Argentina after that thrilling 3-0 win over Jorge Sampaoli’s men.
As for France, they struggled to hit top gear through their group games, but they certainly found their scoring boots in the 4-3 win over Argentina in the last-16. That was followed by wins over Uruguay and Belgium, and so now they’ll be looking for their second World Cup triumph.
It comes just two years after they suffered defeat in the Euro 2016 final, and so Deschamps will undoubtedly be hoping that they’ve learned the lessons from that experience to avoid a similar outcome.
Both sides are certainly deserving of their places in the final in Moscow, but now it remains to be seen whether it will be France or Croatia who are crowned World champions, with both sides at full strength, as seen in the line-ups below.
France will look for Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe to lead their charge, with the latter scoring three goals in the tournament thus far.
For Croatia, their strong midfield trio of Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Rakitic will look to dictate the tempo of the game, but they’ll have to be defensively sound against a dangerous French attack.
France: Lloris, Pavard, Varane, Umtiti, Hernandez, Pogba, Kanté, Mbappé, Griezmann, Matuidi, Giroud.
Croatia: Subasic, Vrsaljko, Strinic, Lovren, Vida, Rakitic, Modric, Brozovic, Perisic, Mandzukic, Rebic.
The team news is in…
Here are your Starting XIs, #FRA and #CRO fans! #FRACRO // #WorldCupFinal pic.twitter.com/f5v1NuaCtJ
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) July 15, 2018