The tears have dried, according to Blaise Matuidi, but the memory continues to burn. France have powered their way to the World Cup final, where they will start as favourites against Croatia in Moscow, and it is to their credit that it will be a fifth major final in 20 years. Yet the journey to the point where a nation can dream was ignited by the nightmare of the last of them.

The countdown to Croatia has been illuminated by French confessions and they have zeroed in on the final of Euro 2016. It was meant to be France’s tournament and not only because they were the host and after they beat Germany in the semi-final they thought the job was done. Portugal would be a pushover in the final. As everybody knows, it did not turn out that way. Portugal won 1-0.

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Olivier Giroud talked of how Didier Deschamps’ team had been “a bit euphoric” after the Germany game while Samuel Umtiti also indicated where it went wrong. “We know what we didn’t do well at the Euros and what we shouldn’t do again,” he said. “The coach has talked to us and warned us not to be overconfident.”

It was left to Paul Pogba to spell it out. “At the Euros we thought we had already won it before the final,” the midfielder said. “When we beat Germany, we thought it was the final. We thought we’d won the final before playing it, which was a mistake.”

By any reckoning the admissions have been remarkable and they have shone a light on the psyche of Deschamps’ players. On one level the sky-high self-assurance might not be all bad, showing – as it did – the complete absence of doubt. These are high-level performers, who have a clear sense of their worth.

A related question concerned the timing of the comments. Would the players have been so open before, say, their first game at this World Cup, in which they scraped past Australia? They have felt empowered by the fact they have reached another final and they can now say why it will be different this time. Perversely it shows them in a more focused light.

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“It’s true that after the Germany semi-final we were too happy,” Matuidi said. “We still think about it and we have to use this experience for Sunday. We will prepare differently. It was a good lesson.”

The transition from the low of Portugal to the high they now feel has been pronounced and, for much of the time, fraught. Deschamps has been stalked by criticism of his team’s playing style – where was the identity? - while he oversaw bold calls in qualification and when he named his 23-man squad for Russia.

Out went 14 of his players from the Euros and in came a crop of youngsters, many of whom were untested. Deschamps was not influenced by previous loyalties or by where some of his players were playing – witness the exclusion of Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette. It was Deschamps striking out on his own, selecting a group that would, primarily, work for him and each other.

Before the finals France were not among the favourites and, after three uninspiring group games, in which Deschamps described his team’s efforts as “laborious”, the knives were out. Had they lost to Argentina in the last 16, a section of the French media would have called for Deschamps to go.

Argentina was where it all changed. Deschamps had arrived at a system for the second group tie against Peru, when France won 1-0, in which Pogba was asked to curb his natural flamboyance alongside N’Golo Kanté in central midfield, Matuidi worked off the left and Antoine Griezmann and Giroud did likewise in central attacking areas. The free role was granted to the 19-year-old prodigy, Kylian Mbappé, on the right.

Deschamps stuck with it against Argentina and, with Mbappé running riot on the counterattack, France won 4-3. They have not looked back, with Deschamps’ tactics looking similarly balanced against Uruguay in the quarter-final and Belgium in the semi-final.

Belgium did not like it, with the goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois of Chelsea, accusing Deschamps of “anti-football”. The style is certainly reactive and, in the Belgium game, it led to Griezmann and Giroud dropping deep to harass the deep-lying midfielders, Axel Witsel and Mousa Dembélé. Yet the fact is that France have been in control of each of their knockout ties.

“Does Courtois think that he plays Barcelona football at Chelsea?” Griezmann chided. “I don’t care how – I just want a second star to be on our shirt.” Umtiti added: “We don’t have anything to answer. What’s important for us is to be qualified and now to win the final. When you win, you don’t talk about second or third.”

Mbappé has thrilled at his breakout tournament, particularly against Argentina and Belgium, and the praise has been fulsome. Pogba described him as “one of the most talented players France has ever had”. But the reason for the team’s progress has been the miserly defensive unit – and that extends to Pogba and Kanté in front of the back four and Matuidi in his narrow role on the left. France have never lost a game in which Pogba and Kanté have started.

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Hugo Lloris has been arguably the goalkeeper of the tournament, making decisive early saves in most of the matches, yet the linchpin has been the centre-half, Raphaël Varane. At the 2014 World Cup – the first competition of Deschamps’ time in charge – it was Varane who was beaten too easily by Mats Hummels for Germany’s winning goal in the quarter-final. That sort of weakness now seems unthinkable in the Real Madrid player.

“Varane is a boss,” Pogba said. “He couldn’t have done it in 2014 but now he can. He is only 25 but it feels as though he has been playing at the top level for 20 years.”

Deschamps was once derided for being a water carrier – a reference to his sideways playing style – but now he stands to walk on it. The captain of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup, he hopes to become only the third man to win it as a manager, too, following Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer.

Deschamps can be a little snarky, as a Russian journalist found out before the semi-final against Belgium. A theme of the tournament has been the desire of seemingly every local to elicit compliments. What do you think of Russia? What do you think of city X or city Y? In this case Deschamps was asked what he thought of Stanislav Cherchesov’s Russia team. The timing was horrible.

“What?” Deschamps replied, brimming with indignation. “Have you just asked me about the Russian national team? Why? I think we should move on.”

But Deschamps’ man-management of his squad has been superb and the message from the players is that he has relaxed a little since the Argentina game. “He’s changed after that,” Griezmann said. “The pressure went a bit lower.” The explosiveness of Mbappé and the platform that Deschamps has created for him also gives the manager a degree of insulation against those who would attack him for his pragmatism.

“Deschamps has something special – something very few people have,” Pogba said. “He was a great player, a World Cup winner, a captain and he knows how to talk to players, including those who are a bit more timid. We are more mature than we were two years ago and our relationship with Deschamps is changing. He talks to us differently now. He knows what he can tell us and he knows we will understand.”

Matuidi mentioned his surprise at how quickly the young players have settled – not only Mbappé but the 22-year-old full-backs, Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernández – and Deschamps has to take a portion of the credit for that. The blend of youthful abandon and greater know-how from the senior players has driven France. “Seventy per cent of the job is mental strength,” Giroud said. “Talent alone is not sufficient.”

If Euro 2016 has cast its shadows, then the talk has also taken in more positive omens. In 1998 France beat Croatia in the semi-final while they could enjoy the emergence of a jet-heeled forward called Thierry Henry and the selfless work of a non-scoring striker in Stéphane Guivarc’h. For them, read Mbappé and Giroud. Remember how Laurent Blanc would kiss the pate of Fabien Barthez before matches? Now Griezmann touches the moustache of the substitute, Adil Rami.

France are fixed on emulating the achievement of that great team and, in the process, chasing away their more recent demons.