MOSCOW: Two years ago France were just as close to a title as they will be here at the Luzhniki Stadium in the World Cup final on Sunday. Playing on home soil, there was a sweeping euphoria that they will win the Euro 2016 title with victory against Portugal in the final. Eight minutes in, it seemed it was a certainty when Portugal lost their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo to injury. It was set up for them to win, bring joy to an expectant home crowd and celebrate with a victory parade at the Champs Elysees.

Champs Elysees didn’t turn blue that night. Portugal stifled France in a superb show of collective strength at the Stade de France, turning back waves of attacks and then sneaking away with a goal in extra-time. On a night that France had prepared to celebrate, it was Portugal who were the ones celebrating. On Sunday, with a victory against Croatia, the French team wants to hold the party that was postponed two years ago.

A lot has changed for France since. Only nine of the players from that defeat to Portugal remain. And on Sunday, coach Didier Deschamps will employ the very same tactics that Portugal used to undo his side. At the World Cup, France have been a side that has shown breathtaking counter-attacking ability, built on a savage defence. They have the players who can produce spellbinding football but they’ve done that in only some fleeting moments, just enough to see them reach the final.

They’ve raised expectations again back home. But they are not even thinking about how the French public is reacting to their run in Russia. Unlike two years ago, they want a finality to the euphoria that they’ve generated.

“The majority of the players weren’t present during the Euro but for those who were it was difficult to digest,” France captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said during the pre-game press conference here at the Luzhniki Stadium on Saturday.

“Two years ago, we didn’t know we would have another chance, another opportunity to play in a final let alone a World Cup final. A lot of things have changed since then. Right now, we’re in our bubble. We are aware of the euphoria in France but we’re far from the idea that it’s all done. Tomorrow we face an opponent of a very high quality and it will take a huge effort to win. The most important match of our career awaits us.”

Key to France’s change is that a lot of veterans have been left out. Deschamps took a youthful team, citing “less experience and more ambition” to Russia. With an average age of 26, they were tied for second with England, only behind Nigeria. The average age in 2016 was 27.8.

Players like forward Kylian Mbappe, the teen sensation who has lit up the World Cup, have led that change. A very young defence has laid French foundations. Raphael Varane is just 25 and Samuel Umtiti is 24 while full-backs Lucas Hernandez and Benjamin Pavard are both 22. Of them, only Umtiti was at the Euros.

“Today’s group is very different to that of two years ago,” Deschamps, who was the captain of France squad that won the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship, said at the news conference on Saturday. “We have 14 new players, who have discovered at the World Cup what it’s like to play a big tournament. The experience is limited but the quality is there.”

He was quick to point out his young side can match up against Croatian experience. “Croatian players have a lot of maturity but we’ve always had opponents who have had more than us. We have nine players who were there at the Euros and what happened then should make us grow. The final is always a very special moment. We must use what we’ve lived so as not to reproduce the same mistakes. Each game has its own particular context.”