France coach Raymond Domenech remains unrepentant about his side's controversial qualification for the World Cup as they prepare for their opener against Uruguay.
Domenech's side only reached South Africa courtesy of a clear Thierry Henry handball to set up William Gallas in their play-off second leg against the Republic of Ireland, but the coach rejected suggestions his team do not deserve to be in South Africa.
''We finished second in our group, we won the play-off - incidentally it was the same for Uruguay who won their play-off,'' he said. ''Other teams won and qualified and there are 32 who qualified who deserved to qualify. That's football.
''The people who are here deserve to be here and obviously somebody will win at the end and they will have deserved to have won and not others.''
Domenech admits the spirit within the camp is anything but ''calm'' - although he has played down reports of disunity.
''I may seem calm,'' he said. ''However, underneath all that there is something of a storm going on. We need to manage that, the 23 of us are ready and determined.
''I don't think the word we could use to describe the spirit in the team is calm. We are determined, we are ready, perhaps a little bit aggressive and impatient.
''Calm is not how I would describe the team spirit, I don't think it is wrong saying that. We have a team which really wants to do something together. Not as individuals, which I think is the difference.''
New captain Patrice Evra - awarded the armband with previous incumbent Henry likely to start on the bench - believes his achievement can be partly attributed to the psychological strength garnered by his difficult start to life at Manchester United.
''I feel pride and honour and a huge responsibility but I have my team-mates behind me,'' he said. ''We are very proud as a team and confident. We have a great deal of responsibility on our shoulders.
''It's difficult to talk about oneself. I've put in some hard work to get to this point, I haven't had any gifts given to me. I am determined. My first six months in Manchester were difficult but I believed in myself and my abilities and I think that is what makes a difference. I think my psychology helped me build and develop my career.''
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