France manager Didier Deschamps praised Le Bleus' heart in the wake of their late 2-0 defeat of Albania at Euro 2016 on Wednesday.
Deschamps surprisingly dropped stars Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann from the starting XI, only to see the two play vital roles after coming on in the second half of France's second Group A game of the competition.
Griezmann scored the winner at the 90-minute mark and Dimitri Payet added another in second-half stoppage time to settle what had been a nervous encounter in Marseille.
The result made hosts France the first to qualify for the knockout stage and Deschamps hailed his side's determination to secure the result.
"The players have a lot of heart," Deschamps said. "We did not start flat out and we didn't have too much success, but we had some luck.
"We have six points and we have already qualified [for the knockout stages]. The final game remains critical, but it's a very good thing. We had to take the advantage and make ourselves safe."
First-time participants Albania have impressed in both their Euro matches thus far, despite failing to collect a point. Their performances, however, have not gone unnoticed by Deschamps.
"For now, we cannot say that the big teams have dominated this tournament. Albanians play in good clubs too," he said, before praising Pogba and Griezmann's impact.
"We did the right thing in the second half and the players who came on made the difference. This is very important because it was the case against Romania."