France 2018 & 2022: World Cup combined XI
Only two teams have ever won back-to-back FIFA World Cups in the tournament's 92-year history.
One was a Brazil side which boasted Pele and Garrincha in 1958 and 1962, the other was an Italy team in 1934 and 1938 who, legend has it, probably had some political help to do it.
This year, France are hoping to achieve that ultra rare and remarkable feat.
And before the attempt to do just that on Sunday, 90min decided to make a combined XI of the best players from their 2018-winning team and their current crop of finalists:
GK - Hugo Lloris (2018)
Lloris could be set to become the first captain to ever lift the World Cup trophy on two separate occasions - which is, well, pretty astonishing considering he's never really been a top five goalkeeper in the world.
As most Tottenham fans will attest, the France captain was perhaps closer to that top five back in 2018 than he is right now. A mistake in that year's final aside (which didn't even matter in the end), Lloris was great at the 2018 tournament, with his highlight being a wonder save to deny Uruguay's Martin Caceres a certain goal a the quarter-final stage.
RB - Jules Kounde (2022)
Naturally a centre-back, Jules Kounde has been shifted over to right-back by Didier Deschamps at international level, and it's a move that's worked wonders for Les Bleus.
Kounde has been outrageously consistent throughout the tournament and, despite Benjamin Pavard popping up with that goal against Argentina in 2018, we're not going to pretend that he's not an infinitely better football than Benjamin Pavard. He is. Obviously.
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CB - Samuel Umtiti (2018)
For some players from the 2018 World Cup-winning squad, not a whole lot has changed in four years. Most are going back to another World Cup final and most are still some of the best footballers in the world. Samuel Umititi is not one of said 'most'.
The centre-back is now plying his trade on loan at Lecce after an injury-riddled few years, which is quite sad let's be honest. Still though, there's no denying how good Umtiti was back in 2018 when he had two functioning legs and was seemingly the future of the France and Barcelona defences. He was utterly brilliant.
CB - Raphael Varane (2018)
Speaking of 'utterly brilliant', here's Raphael Varane.
The now Manchester United player is having a fantastic 2022 World Cup and has arguably been the best defender at the competition, but back in 2018 he was undoubtedly the best around. He was so good in fact that he ended up finishing 7th in Ballon d'Or voting despite being, quite literally, a centre-back.
LB - Theo Hernandez (2022)
It's fairly remarkable that the options at left-back in this team were two brothers. The Hernandez's are a talented bunch.
While Lucas was fantastic in 2018, we've opted for Theo for this team (mainly because of his semi-final goal to be honest).
CM - Paul Pogba (2018)
While his club form wasn't particularly good over the past five or six years, Paul Pogba has always been fantastic at international level.
In 2018 he was France's locker room leader, a goalscorer in the World Cup final and did the only socially acceptable dab in history.
CM - N'Golo Kante (2018)
Put simply, France do not win the 2018 FIFA World Cup without N'Golo Kante doing the dirty work in midfield.
His masterful performances in the middle of the park meant that the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and the aforementioned Pogba could go and win games for Les Bleus without worrying about what's going on behind them.
AM - Antoine Griezmann (2022)
Griezmann the goalscorer of 2018 or Griezmann the playmaker of 2022?
That's the question we're answering here.
While the Atleti man did score four goals at the 2018 tournament, we're going to have to go with current day Griezmann. He's arguably been the best player at the 2022 World Cup thanks to his displays in a new role in midfield.
RW - Kylian Mbappe (2022)
2018 was Mbappe's breakout year, and now four years later he's the best footballer in the world.
That's not exactly surprising, is it?
ST - Olivier Giroud (2022)
Given the chance to be France's starting striker in 2022 thanks to Karim Benzema's injury, Olivier Giroud hasn't disappointed - scoring four goals at the tournament.
He is key to the way Les Bleus play and may just be the most underrated footballer of the last decade.
LW - Blaise Matuidi (2018)
Yeah we agree his name does look a bit out of place here.
Firstly, Matuidi has always been a central midfielder and secondly, he has always been, well, Matuidi.
Back in 2018 however, Deschamps shifted the ex-Juventus man out to the left and it worked wonders. Matuidi was the unsung hero of that World Cup-winning team, doing all the dirty work up and down the left flank.