Napoleon met disaster in Russia after sending almost half a million soldiers on an invasion that began in the summer of 1812 and ended in humiliation. Didier Deschamps, with only 23 men in his Grande Armée, will be hoping for a better outcome in the coming weeks. For a start the inhabitants of Moscow are unlikely to have burnt the place to the ground by the time his squad pitch camp next week in a Hilton hotel 50km west of the city walls.

France are ranked fourth in the World Cup betting behind Brazil, Germany and Spain. Twenty years after their only success in the competition they may even be justified in examining their impressive resources and believing that the time for a repeat has finally come.

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Last week L’Équipe reprinted the edition published on Monday, 13 July, 1998, the morning after France discovered that it was, after all, a football nation. “Pour l’éternité” rang the sonorous headline, and the team who beat Brazil by three unanswered goals in Saint-Denis did indeed join the immortals – even Stéphane Guivarc’h, the centre-forward whose selection for the final provided a definition of the phrase faute de mieux”, meaning “for the lack of anything better”.

In effect France won the tournament without a functioning forward line. Their three goals in the final were scored by two midfielders, Zinedine Zidane and Emmanuel Petit. Earlier their continued presence had been secured only by a central defender, Laurent Blanc, scoring the only goal in an excruciating performance against Paraguay in the round of 16, and a full-back, Lilian Thuram, whose double defeated Croatia in the semi-final. Four years later in South Korea their main forwards, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Djibril Cissé, could manage not a single goal between them, despite being the leading scorers in England, Italy and France respectively.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Didier Deschamps, the captain, leads the celebrations after France win the World Cup in 1998. Photograph: Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images

It had not always been so. Picking his all-time greatest France XI on this website at the weekend Marcel Desailly felt able to omit both Just Fontaine, still the top scorer for a single competition with 13 goals in six matches during the 1958 World Cup finals, and his great partner Raymond Kopa, the winner of the Ballon d’Or that same year.

And how different, too, things look today, even in a side which Christophe Dugarry, a veteran of 1998 turned radio pundit, claims to be lacking in “character, mental strength and determination”. In their last 13 matches Deschamps’ men have scored 30 goals, displaying an attacking potency at least equal to that of any other Russia-bound nation. A possible front trio of PSG’s Kylian Mbappé, Atlético Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann and Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé offers speed of thought and foot, with a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old flanking a man who, at 27, has the experience of 53 caps and three successful seasons satisfying Diego Simeone’s demands. And Olivier Giroud, if he does not start, can leave the bench to add physical presence.

In midfield they look equally well equipped with Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi in front of N’Golo Kanté. The young Corentin Tolisso of Bayern Munich is ready to play a part should Pogba, for example, disappoint, although Deschamps described the Manchester United player as “indispensable” following a mediocre performance in the 3-1 win over Italy in Nice on Friday night.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The France team photo with N’Golo Kanté all but hidden behind Paul Pogba. Photograph: @equipedefrance/twitter

In an official pre-tournament photograph of the squad posing informally in their stylish navy blue suits, Kanté is invisible, hidden behind the prominent figure of Pogba. That is how he likes it, but his presence gives the team a player who not only snuffs out imminent danger with the minimum of drama but launches instant counterattacks with crisp passes of perfect weight and angle.

Kanté will be the dynamic soul of Deschamps’ France, his alertness and mobility vital factors in compensating for any flaws in defence. Against Italy the head coach deployed two fast and attack-minded 22-year-old full-backs, Benjamin Pavard of Stuttgart and Lucas Hernández of Atlético, to promising effect. But Samuel Umtiti had an unhappy night against the resurgent Mario Balotelli and Raphaël Varane is likely to return alongside Adil Rami in central defence in front of the captain, Hugo Lloris, who is on schedule to win his 100th cap in the group stage.

Only five men – Lloris, Varane, Pogba, Griezmann and Matuidi – who started their quarter-final defeat by Germany in the Maracanã four years ago are likely to be named for France’s opening match against Australia on 16 June. This turnover speaks clearly about the volume of top-quality players constantly produced by France’s clubs and the national training scheme centred on Clairefontaine, one of the wonders of the football world 20 years ago and still a model for other nations.

The varied ethnic composition of the 1998 squad offered another kind of example. The team of blacks, blancs and beurs (North Africans) may not have magically turned France’s suburbs into oases of multicultural tranquillity but they certainly made some parts of the nation more aware of the existence and contribution of others. Their successors could reinforce the message with goals from Griezmann (parents of German and Portuguese origin), Mbappé (Cameroonian father, Algerian mother), and Dembélé (mother of Mauritian and Senegalese descent, father from Mali).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Didier Deschamps and Zinedine Zidane played together for France and Juventus. Photograph: Oliver Berg/EPA

As for the head coach, the shadow of his old team-mate Zidane, suddenly at a loose end and known to fancy a crack at managing the national team, has fallen over a contract due to expire after the Euros in 2020. Deschamps, who can point to a record of leading France to the quarter-finals four years ago and finishing runners-up to Portugal at Euro 2016, is laughing off the inevitable questions. But if he needed another incentive to take the coming campaign to a triumphant conclusion, there it is.