The French national team will on Sunday attempt to become the first team in 60 years to retain the World Cup trophy when they meet Argentina at the Lusail Stadium.

Meanwhile, Chelsea legend Didier Drogba is of the opinion that Didier Deschamps’ side who finished top of Group D before beating Poland, England and Morocco in the knockout stages have a key ‘advantage’ over Argentina ahead of the World Cup final in Qatar.

Argentina had topped Group C despite a shock opening defeat to Saudi Arabia and saw off Australia, Netherlands and Croatia on their way to a sixth World Cup final.

While Lionel Messi and Argentina dream of lifting the World Cup for a third time in what appears to be the final World Cup outing for the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, France are bidding to become just the third team to successfully defend the title.

Drogba believes France’s experience of not only reaching but winning the previous final gives them an ‘advantage’ over Argentina, with ten of France’s 2018 squad and World Cup-winning manager Deschamps featuring in Qatar.

Chelsea hero Didier Drogba believes France have advantage over Argentina to lift the 2022 World Cup on Sunday

Speaking to  BBC Sport, the former Chelsea and Ivory Coast forward maintained: ‘France do have the advantage of being in the final and winning it four years ago’.

‘You know how to handle the pressure, you’ve been there, but they have new players and it will be new for them.

‘It might be the first time some of them have played against Lionel Messi as well. The pressure will be there.

‘This France team are very, very competitive, especially with Didier Deschamps as their manager. They want to win it back to back.

‘Argentina will know that the French team don’t like to receive a lot of knocks. Argentina are really aggressive and they won’t let Kylian Mbappe face the game.

‘They will try and block him because they know he is the main man. It is going to be difficult for them to handle Tchouameni, Griezmann and even Dembele.

‘We don’t talk about Dembele I think he has been helping Jules Kounde a lot. He has been working really hard.’

Lifting the World Cup would complete Messi’s extraordinary career – he suffered heartbreak in the 2014 final against Germany – but France are determined to ruin the fairytale.

Striker Olivier Giroud said: ‘Messi is an incredible player, but we are not going to let him enjoy the best night he can have. We want to win this game. We want to win another World Cup.

‘We will try everything to stop him. But there is not only Messi in that team. They have got great players who work for the team also. I think that is why they are so strong.’