France manager Didier Deschamps said Saturday he has drummed three words into his team as they prepare to take on Croatia in the World Cup final.

"We have managed to prepare as best as we can...and the three important words are that we must stay calm, we must have confidence and we must have concentration," said the 49-year-old, who captained France to victory in the 1998 World Cup on home soil.

His three-word mantra is no doubt aimed at getting his youthful squad -- the second youngest of all 32 who competed in Russia -- to manage their emotions as they face off on Sunday against a vastly experienced Croatia team boasting players who have battled on club soccer's biggest stages.

(Deschamps (L) and Antoine Griezmann pictured during training)

The French captain Hugo Lloris, who spoke at the same press conference at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium just minutes before his manager, said Deschamps' message is getting through.

"Our management team is giving us the best possible conditions, but we also have this inner strength inside our team that is inside us from the beginning and gives us the strength to go over any obstacles, to face any challenge," said the Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper.

"Tomorrow will most certainly be the most important match of our career. We will be ready physically and mentally because it is going to be a very, very high-level match, a special match because it is a final."

(Hugo Lloris)

 though Croatia will be playing in their first-ever major final, Deschamps is not underestimating the challenge.

Identifying Real Madrid's Luka Modric, whose "playing intelligence is huge," and his midfield partner Ivan Rakitic of Barcelona as particularly problematic, Deschamps wants to use the lessons learned from the pain of his team's Euro 2016 final defeat.

Nine players remain in the squad from their loss to Portugal in Paris two years ago, one of them being three-World Cup veteran Lloris.

He said the team would keep a lid on their emotions after beating Belgium 1-0 in the semifinals, something they failed to do after topping Germany at the same stage in the European Championships.

"I don't think it is going to happen again because the Euro was something new for many players," said Lloris after explaining the team celebrated following their 2-0 defeat of Germany.

"We didn't have that after (the semifinal win over) Belgium. We gave a lot of effort to reach where we are, we know what we've gone through, and we want to give the best opportunity to our team to win this final."

Deschamps seemed to exude confidence in the knowledge that his team is not going to experience anything new in the final.

"It is true that the Croatians have a wealth of experience because the players have reached a certain level of maturity and those players have been together for a while in the national squad," he said.

"Whatever the match we have taken on in this World Cup, we have always been facing opponents with more experience."

But Deschamps sees only opportunity because, as he put it, "there is nothing more beautiful, nothing more powerful when one is a professional football player. The best is to play in a World Cup final."