Any team in a World Cup final has skill and standout players.

What decides the winner is usually desire, or "hunger," as Italy coach Marcello Lippi said Saturday.

Italy's Francesco Totti controls a football during a World Cup soccer training session in Duisburg July 8, 2006. [Reuters]

Italy plays France for the title in Berlin on Sunday, seeking a first title since the 1982 World Cup. Its opponent still has fresh memories of winning the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship.

"We haven't won anything," Lippi said. "Tomorrow we're going to sit down at a lavishly prepared table and see who's hungrier. Technically ... the two squads are even."

Back in Italy, celebrations are being prepared for Italy's team whether it wins or loses, but Lippi said only one result was acceptable.

"I want to be clear on one thing," he said. "When I hear people talking about celebrating no matter how things turn out, it bothers me. If we lose, we won't want to joke around. Having gotten this far and then not winning would make me really (angry) tomorrow.

"When in your life are you going to get a chance like this again?"

Before Italy's 2-0 extra-time win over Germany in the semifinals, Lippi called the Italy-Germany matchup the "game of all games" for all the memorable matches the two countries have played.

Lippi now says that France "is stronger than Germany."

"Germany is very strong and very young, but it doesn't have the experience that France has right now," Lippi said.

France captain Zidane Zidane, the central force behind France's World Cup and European titles, will be playing the final game of his career.

Lippi used to coach Zidane at Juventus and Italian newspapers have dedicated pages to options for containing the Frenchman.

Zidane's France beat Italy in the quarterfinals en route to the 1998 title and in the 2000 European final.

In 1998, Italy defender Gianluca Pessotto struggled to mark Zidane. After the 2000 final, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi called Italy's coach at the time, Dino Zoff, and chastised him for not marking Zidane closely. The call made Zoff resign.

The latest speculation is that Lippi might mark Zidane with a single man, such as midfielder Gennaro Gattuso.

"You can never put too much focus on the importance of one player," Lippi said. "Without forgetting about the other players, though, because that would be the biggest mistake of all."

Italy doesn't have any players that stand out the way Zidane does. The Azzurri's 11 goals so far have been scored by 10 different players.

"That's our strength, the group," midfielder Andrea Pirlo said.