Racing Post

History likely to repeat itself for Carthage Eagles

Aaron Ashley

ONE of five Africaan repressentatives at thiss year’s Worldd Cup, Tunisia sealed their spot in Qatar with a hard-foought playoff win over Malli.

This will be the Tuunisia’s sixth World Cup finaals and it i their second on the spin,s although they have foundf acclimatising to the challeng tough in the past.

Tunisia have neveer made it out of the group stagge and their 2-1 win over Paanama in 2018 was their first victoryv at the World Cup sincee they beat Mexico in 1978.

In fact, six of their nine World Cup matches since 2002 have resulted in defeeat and loss es to England (2-1) and Belg gium (5-2) in 2018 suggest they y look set to be outclassed by thheir two European rivals.

Th he Eagles of Carthage mad de the quarter-finals of the Afric ca Cup of Nations in Janu uary but were beaten 1-0 by Burk kina Faso, having also lost by thhat scoreline in two of their thre ee group games against Mal li and Gambia.

Ja alel Kadri’s side did win the Kirin n Cup at the expense of host ts Japan, Chile and Ghana in Juune, but it is difficult to know w the value of that form give en the sides took the opp portunity to tweak tactics in that t friendly competition. Th here are some talented oun ngsters coming through the ranks,r most notably

Manchester United’s Hannibal Mejbri, who has shone on loan at Birmingham, but it is the creative influence of Montpellier man Wahbi Khazri which remains key to their qualification prospects

Eight of Tunisia’s last 11 competitive fixtures have featured no more than one goal so they are capable of frustrating opponents for large periods but a shortage of attacking quality means they are unable to make inroads.

Their preparations will not have not been aided by a warning from Fifa that they could have been thrown out of the tournament if the country’s government interferes in football matters.

WORLD CUP 2022 GROUP D

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2022-11-17T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-17T08:00:00.0000000Z

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