France coach Raymond Domenech has his critics on the run after, so far at least, being vindicated with all his major World Cup decisions since arriving in Germany.

Domenech will lead his troops into battle with Brazil in Frankfurt on Saturday with Les Bleus in buoyant mood after the 3-1 win over Spain in the last 16.

Domenech, who makes no secret that only winning the final will be an acceptable result for France, looks to have silenced the many critics who were assailing him at the start of the tournament.

Before the tournament started some indifferent performances from Patrick Vieira in warm-up games had some in the French press questioning whether the midfielder deserved a place in the starting line-up.

Before France's disappointing 0-0 draw with Switzerland in their opener, Domenech defended the Juventus player, saying he would be one of the "great players" of this World Cup

Man-of-the-match performances from Vieira against Togo and Spain - he scored crucial goals in both games - have ended the debate and if the 30-year-old can keep up his present form he will be a candidate for player of the tournament.

The decision to make Franck Ribery a member of the starting line-up also now looks fully justified with the 23-year-old's goal against Spain - after a one-two with Vieira - having seen him cement his place in the side.

Speaking after the Spain game, Domenech, who has a keen interest in amateur dramatics, fired back at his critics and said that the warm-up matches had been insignificant, saying: "Football is not like the theatre where the audience sees only the performance and not the rehearsals."

France went into the game with Togo in Cologne with David Trezeguet up front alongside Thierry Henry and the French responded with the 2-0 win they needed to be sure of a knockout round place.

However, against Spain, to more criticism, he reverted to the 4-2-3-1 system he had used before the Togo match with Trezeguet dropped - again it proved a wise decision with the Spanish, who had played excellent football in the group phase, quickly becoming frustrated by a packed midfield.

The coach savoured his tactical triumph, saying: "Our principle idea was that as Spain like to keep the ball we must stop them playing and that was our basic idea which succeeded.

"We stuffed the midfield and even players like Titi (Thierry Henry) and Zizou (Zinedine Zidane) worked hard to close down the Spain players - they went against their nature to do that."

France's ill-fated 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004 campaigns failed partly because the squad seemed sluggish and out of condition but a feature of the French team of 2006 is that they seem to be growing in physical strength as the tournament progresses.

Next up for France is a quarter-final with Brazil - a rematch of the 1998 final that Les Bleus won 3-0 and a battle between the two most recent winners of the World Cup.

However, Domenech has made it clear that he is looking beyond the date with the South Americans to a final on July 9 in Berlin.

"That date's on my hard disc," he said. "I repeat the objective of the French team is to be present in the final on July 9."

And if Les Bleus can see off the defending champions on Saturday evening, that objective will almost be within touching distance.