The game against Finland in Helsinki on Friday is new Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps' first competitive international in charge.

Mavuba believes France can finish top of Group I, despite facing world champions Spain later in the campaign.
 
"It will be an important game, which will launch our qualification campaign for the 2014 World Cup so we'll have to win," he said.

"It will not be easy against a good side like Finland but France must win, we need these three points.

"To finish first in the group we need to beat Finland and Belarus. These are important games and they are not the easiest. Everyone thought we would finish second, but our goal is to be first.

"If we do not believe ourselves, there is no interest to play against Spain. We know that Spain is a difficult opponent, but we're going to do everything to finish first."

Despite the heavy focus on group favourites Span, the Lille midfielder is wary of underestimating Finland.

"Finland has a good team with good players. There is a peculiarity in that there is none who plays in the Finnish championship," Mavuba said.

"So we must be careful. There are players who play in interesting leagues like Rubin Kazan, and Danish or Greek. So we need to be careful because it can be dangerous."

Having last month earned his first international call-up since 2007, Mavuba feels comfortable among his France team-mates and is relishing the chance to add to his seven international caps.

"I feel good in the group there are a lot of players that I already knew," he said.

"The technical staff did everything to make it good to me. So it goes well, I am happy to be here and I enjoy every moment."