Joseph Isokpesi Reporting
The Carthage Eagles of Tunisia may have crashed out of the FIFA world cup in Qatar, the north African side who needed a win to reach the second round did well to secure the points over world cup holders France inside the Education city stadium, Al Rayyan, but for the result of the other group game, Tunisia bow out of the tournament but with pride.
Tunisia shocked Cup Favourite France with a 1-0 win courtesy of Montpellier striker Wahbi Khazri goal in the 58th minute and they defended to the end even though Antoine Griezmann’s dying seconds goal was ruled out by VAR for offside.
The win was Tunisia third in 18 matches at the world cup, as Khazri has now scored three straight goals in the tournament for Tunisia.
Khazri, who grew up in Corsica, France was one of six players in Tunisia line up today who were born on French soil and was capped by France at the under-21 level.
After a dull first half, The Carthage Eagles had a goal scored by Nader Ghandri in the 8th minute disallowed, but the captain of the side Khazri did well to silence the Les bleus’, with his solo drive from the midfield for his third straight world cup goal, despite the loss, the cup holders still finish as Group D winners.
France manager Didier Deschamps made nine changes to his first in today’s final group game against Tunisia, though he later introduced Kylian Mbape, Rabiot, Dembele, and Saliba, in the second half, after a poor showing by the second-string team, the former world cup winner as a player and manager will live to regret his decision to keep some of his first team players on the bench, the same thing he did against Denmark four years ago in Russia in the final group game which ended goalless, though France still went on to win the world cup.
Tunisia finish in third place with four points behind the surprise package in the group, Australia who pipped Denmark 1-0 to reach the last 16, as Tunisia becomes the first African side to bow out of the 2022 world cup.
Tunisia May be out of the global soccer showpiece, they go into the history book having beaten the world cup defending champions France in a final group game at the world cup and the celebration will linger for a long time to come.
Morocco, Senegal, and Ghana are the other African countries that have surprise bookmakers in Qatar, following wins over Ecuador, Belgium, South Korea, and now France.
It won’t be out of place if one of the remaining four African teams in Qatar can get to the last Eight.
Ghana need a point on Friday over Uruguay in group H to qualify for the second round and hope Portugal, and South Korea’s result go their way, why does Morocco have what it takes to pick all three points against Canada on Thursday in the final group F game for a place in the round of 16.
