France's national coach Raymond Domenech talks to players during his team's World Cup soccer training session in Berlin, July 8, 2006.[Reuters]

"Our goal was to play seven matches and the seventh is coming up," said the 54-year-old, who had kept insisting the 1998 champions would make the final even when it was not at all obvious they would get there.

"I don't regard this as a final," he told a news conference. "It's just a match we have to win before quietly going on holidays."

A wave of euphoria is sweeping France after their team, relying heavily on players believed to be past their prime just a few weeks ago, went all the way to the title match.

All the members of the old guard stepped up a gear after a sluggish start, starting with Zinedine Zidane, who recaptured his brilliant best to help France knock out Spain, Brazil and Portugal with performances reminiscent of a previous vintage.

Domenech, however, is not getting carried away, and nor are his players.

SILENT ZIDANE

"I stayed in my bubble," said the coach, always careful to keep his cards close to his chest by saying as little as possible.

"I haven't read or listened to anything about football for a month. If you start doing that, all the madness going on can disturb you."

The players, too, are keeping a low profile, notably Zidane, who will play the last match of his illustrious career on Sunday but came to talk to the media only once since the start of the finals, before France's opening 0-0 draw with Switzerland.

"I understand Zinedine," Domenech said of his silent captain. "His objective is to do, not to say, and that goes for the other players as well. They have built a fortress around them and are staying in there.

"I think they're right. All the criticism after the last World Cup hurt them a lot," added the coach, referring to the 2002 fiasco, when France were eliminated without a win or a goal from the group stage.

As always, Domenech would not be drawn about tactics. The coach is nevertheless expected to field the same team as in France's last three outings, a compact formation with Zidane in his usual playmaking role and Thierry Henry on his own up front.

On the eve of the final, the France players took part in a final training session that was staged on a nearby pitch so as not to damage the turf of the Olympic stadium after heavy rain fell on the German capital.