Deschamps preaches three Cs

France coach Didier Deschamps has instructed his players in his own version of the three Cs -- calm, confidence and concentration -- as preparation for Sunday's World Cup final against Croatia.

The French are favourites to win the World Cup when they take on the Croatians at Luzhniki stadium but Deschamps is well aware they were also fancied to beat Portugal in the Euro 2016 final, which they lost.

Deschamps revealed he had come up with a variation on the industry model for success -- company, customers and competitors -- to help his players deal with the pressures of playing such a big game.

"It's a huge pleasure and privilege to play in such a match, there's nothing more beautiful as a professional football player than to play in the World Cup final," he told reporters on Saturday. "We have prepared them as best we can. We must stay calm, we must have confidence and we must concentrate -- these are the three words we've have been focusing on to get them ready for the final."

Deschamps said France were a very different team than the one that lost to Portugal two years ago, which inevitably meant they lacked something in experience compared to the Croatians.

"The 14 players I have integrated since the Euro final, they have only learned what playing a big tournament is all about here in Russia, so of course the experience is less but the quality is there," he added.  "Croatia has players with great club experience and their squad has been together for a long time but every team we've faced here has been more experienced."

Still, he thought, the nine players who were in the squad at Euro 2016 would ensure the French team for Sunday would learn lessons from the experience of that final, if only to pass on how it felt to lose such a big match.

Fit again Croatia ready to rumble

Croatia have no major injury concerns going into the final despite having played three 120-minute matches and are looking forward to a seismic event for the small Balkan nation, coach Zlatko Dalic said on Saturday.

The Croatians needed penalties to beat Denmark in the last 16 and Russia in the quarterfinals and extra time to edge England in the last four. Mario Mandzukic and defender Ivan Strinic had to be taken off injured late in that game. Dalic said that despite five players missing Friday's training all his group were fit.

"Tomorrow is the World Cup final. The players know what that means. One thing that makes me happy is that all my players tell me whether they are not 100 percent," Dalic told reporters. "If they will be unable to give their all during the match I expect them to tell us."

"We did not insist on practice sessions. We have nothing to practise. We need relaxation and rest. We have some minor injuries but I hope we will overcome those today and all my players will be ready to play," the 51-year-old said. "We created such a group where they will concede and will say 'I have to miss the final'. If they are not ready we have great players on the bench who are rearing to go."

"Win or lose tomorrow there will be a seismic event (in Croatia). This gives us strength and motivation. There can be no better moment for a player or a coach than tomorrow. Whatever happens, we will be happy and proud because we deserved it."