Tunisia

The Road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup

Tunisia negotiated the first African qualification stage without too much difficulty, beating Mauritania 2-1 in both legs for a 4-2 aggregate victory.

At the group stage the main threat came from DR Congo, but the North Africans took four out of six points in two games against their main rivals, and in the end topped the group on 14 points with an undefeated campaign – one point ahead of DR Congo, with Guinea and Libya lagging much further behind.

Stars

Tunisian fans may have hoped to see Aymen Abdennour and Anis Ben-Hatira in the qualifiers, but both fell out with the team’s new coach and have not been called up to the squad since.

Instead, Tunisia now depend heavily on Wahbi Khazri, who currently plays his club football for Ligue 1 Rennes on loan from English Championship team Sunderland. Khazri scored two goals during qualifying and is the most recognizable name in the setup.

Youssef Msakni, who plays his club football for Qatari side Lekhwiya, was the nation’s top scorer during qualifying, with all three of his goals coming in the 4-1 away win against Guinea.

Coach

Nabil Maaloul has been at the helm since early 2017, when he took over from Polish coach Henryk Kasperczak. The Pole guided the team to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, and was in his second stint in charge until the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final defeat against Burkina Faso in 2017. He rushed to blame his players for the loss, and was subsequently dismissed by the Tunisian Football Federation.

Maaloul was seen as an experienced pair of hands, having had two spells as part of the national team coaching setup, including as head coach in 2013.

His coaching career includes periods at Qatar’s El-Jaish SC and Kuwait, although the 55-year-old has not yet won any major titles.

Past Achievements

Tunisia made their World Cup Finals bow in 1978. While they failed to get beyond the first stage, they lost just one match, which marked the best performance in the country’s history (although back then the World Cup featured 16 teams, not the current 32).

That relative success was followed by a long period of absence. The team reached the Finals in 1998, 2002 (when they were in the same group as Russia), and 2006, but never managed to progress to the knockout stages – which is no surprise since they didn’t win a single game at any of the tournaments.