Euro 2016 - France have already achieved something, but ultimate redemptive moment awaits

To walk to the Bataclan and to stop outside for a while is to be reminded that Paris has not fully recovered from the horror of November 13. The Stade de France, targeted with three suicide bombs as France played a friendly against Germany, will host Sunday’s final but the concert venue, in which 90 people were slaughtered by gunmen, remains closed; boarded up, still and silent.

Even on the eve of what could be a huge national party, and just four days before Bastille Day no less, you do not need to search hard for echoes of the night which devastated France. The country is still in a state of emergency and even as you see heavily armoured police vehicles closing off streets in central Paris, everyone strolls past unmoved. The new normal. It has been widely reported in recent days that Antoine Griezmann’s sister, Maud, survived the Bataclan attack. And most poignant, given Sunday’s opponents, is the fact that the only person killed at the Stade de France, 63-year-old chauffeur Manuel Dias, was a fan of both teams contesting the final.

“He was Portuguese by birth, but the French national team represented something quite particular for him,” his son Michael told the BBC. “It was his team, the one he loved above even Portugal. I remember how thrilled he was in 1998." That seminal triumph at France’s home World Cup had an estimated one million people pouring into the streets around Champs Elysees. France has been yearning for a new generation to experience something similar, to lift a cloud over Paris.

“I think the French people really needed to escape via this competition and sport has the ability to bring people together and unite them,” said captain Hugo Lloris at his press conference on Saturday. “We can see this as we are experiencing it. Of course we have had some very tough times this year with tragic events but also with events which have gone on off the field, but we are even prouder to be on the pitch and really feel the entire French population is behind us and feel the happiness which is shared between the players and people. It’s lovely to see but we still have one final step to take and to finish the competition in the best possible fashion.”

What Dimitri Payet started, France hope to finish. It was 1-1 in the opening game against Romania when the West Ham midfielder scored a sensational winner to lift all those in the Stade de France off their feet. It was the first, vital step in a process here which has repaired the relationship between a team and its fans - and to some extent maybe even a country and its people.

By the time France had beaten Germany 2-0 in a raucous Stade Velodrome in the semi-finals with spinetingling versions of the Marseillaise, the national team were back in the bosom of the public, six years after a player strike in Knysna, South Africa, which destroyed any sense of fraternity. There have been many low moments since then - players being booed, controversies over racial quotas, the Benzema-Valbuena blackmail affair - and it has been a long road back to favourability. But it is one France have travelled.

“Clearly it [2010] left its mark on French football; clearly we made mistakes,” Bacary Sagna admitted. “I don’t think it was nice because we brought French football down and left a negative image around the world. We had to do a great deal of work, go back to basics and get the public with us. We have done a great deal of work to be here six years later in the final and we want to put a smile on the faces of the French people and show a new image. We can’t erase what went on in the past but we want to look forward. We want to show Portugal we are at home; we want to show the French public we are ready to fight for ourselves but most of all them.”

In one sense, France have already achieved something emotionally significant at these finals. “We went through a crisis in French football but we have overcome it,” says Lloris. But their sporting ambition has not been realised yet. Yes, Les Bleus are heavy favourites and have won their past 10 matches against Portugal stretching back to 1975, but in order to complete the story and give the country the redemptive moment it desires they still have 90 minutes, or possibly more, to negotiate without falling into the clutches of disaster.

After a build-up from hell - the shadow of terror, the Benzema controversy, a string of injuries in defensive positions - France are on the verge of an achievement to match winning Euro 84 and the 1998 World Cup on French soil. To do so would bring joy to a country and consecrate a team as heroes for all time.

“Playing in the final in your home country, where you are born, is exceptional,” says Sagna. “I want to see fans smiling after the match tomorrow and we want to make history.” Two noble aims for this proud nation, assaulted so violently in November but preparing to party in the streets now.