French coach Aime Jacquet last night paid tribute to his two goal hero Lilian Thuram for a stunning performance which put the hosts into the World Cup final. Thuram's game was the difference between France and Croatia and now Jacquet's team face the ultimate test against world champions Brazil in the final on Sunday.

"Thuram was excellent," said Jacquet. "It was the perfect reward for all the effort he has put in this tournament so far. He has brought a mental discipline to the side, and he has been able to instil that into the whole team.

"In some ways it was a double triumph because I don't think that we had a wonderful game tonight. But we played with our hearts and that made a difference. Croatia are a very good team, we knew they would be very hard to beat. I think our sheer effort and mental concentration saw us through."

Jacquet admitted that the loss of centre-back Laurent Blanc, sent off for violent conduct after he pushed his hand into Slaven Bilic's face, would be a blow for the final.

He said: "I don't know what happened I haven't seen it yet, I'll have to look at it but of course it is going to be a problem for us. But now we play Brazil - they are the best team in the world and we really hope it's going to be a wonderful festival of football."

Croatia defender Dario Simic said: "We are very proud of what we have done in this World Cup. It was a very tough game tonight, very hard, it was a man's game of football tonight."

Simic refused to admit that Thuram's immediate equaliser had been the turning point of the game. "I wouldn't say that at all," he said. "These things happen in football and you just get on with it and keep trying to score.

"All we have left now is Holland in the third place play-off and of course we will do our best to win that."