Tunisia faced France in the World Cup on Monday looking to bounce back from their opening defeat to Belgium and secure a place in the knockout stage of the competition. However, despite Wahbi Khazri scoring an 89th-minute winner, the African side were unable to overturn France’s 1-0 lead from the first leg and were eliminated 4-2 on aggregate.
Tunisia’s World Cup History
Tunisia’s World Cup journey came to an end on Tuesday night, with the African side falling to a 1-0 defeat to France. Despite Wahbi Khazri scoring a spectacular second half winner, it wasn’t enough to send Tunisia through to the knockout stage of World Cup 2022.
The final score was Tunisia 0-1 France, as the French side sealed their spot in the knockout stage with a goal late in the match. While Tunisia will now be heading home after their valiant effort in Russia, they can take heart in their impressive performance against one of the world’s best sides.
This marks the first time Tunisia have tasted defeat against France at a major international tournament, with the last encounter between the two sides ending in a 1-1 draw back in 1978. With this loss, Tunisia now has an overall record of 1 win, 1 draw and 6 losses against France in their World Cup history.
Though the Tunisians are heading home early, they can be proud of their performance throughout the tournament and their historic win against France.
Tunisia can look forward to more successful World Cup campaigns in the future. In Tunisia vs France final score action, Tunisia took an early lead thanks to a superb left-footed strike from Wajdi Kechiri in the 9th minute. But just 5 minutes later Kylian Mbappé leveled things up from close range.
Tunisia pushed for a winner but it was not forthcoming, with Mbappé putting the game beyond doubt in stoppage time.
The Match
The Tunisia vs France final result was 1-1 after Wahbi Khazri scored a stunning goal in the second half to put the African side in front. The World Champions were not to be denied however, and a late Antoine Griezmann goal salvaged a point for Les Bleus.
Despite the result, Tunisia can be proud of their efforts at the World Cup 2022. After navigating a difficult group stage, they were able to take on one of the tournament favorites and nearly pull off an upset.
Even in defeat, their performance showed the world what this team is capable of. Their first match against Poland resulted in a 0-0 draw, before defeating Colombia 2-1 in their second outing.
Tunisia took the lead thanks to Ferjani Sassi’s early strike against the Colombian defense. Tunisia failed to win either of its next two matches against Japan and Senegal before edging out France with some help from Wahbi Khazri.
In doing so, he became only the third player from Tunisia ever to score for his country at a FIFA World Cup finals (after Aymen Abdennour and Oussama Darrag).
Tunisia are still waiting to find out who they will face in the round of 16: Uruguay or Iran await them. Tunisia will now have time to regroup before facing whichever opponent emerges as Group C winners.
Final score Tunisia vs France: due to Wahbi Khazri’s second-half strike, Tunisia bowed out of World Cup 2022 despite their first competitive win. France, who had a late Antoine Griezmann goal salvaged a point for Les Bleus. Despite the result, Tunisia can be proud of their efforts at the World Cup 2022.
After navigating a difficult group stage, they were able to take on one of the tournament favorites and nearly pull off an upset. Even in defeat, their performance showed the world what this team is capable of.
Tunisia made history in becoming only the third North African side to compete in the World Cup Finals following Algeria 1962 and Morocco 1986.
They recorded two victories over Colombia and three draws versus Japan, Senegal, France which saw them finish top of Group H . Tunisia have never beaten France in six meetings between the sides, but always been close.
It was also a tense affair as Khazri came up against former teammate Lassana Diarra.
Tunisia conceded again in stoppage time through substitute Olivier Giroud, but held on to claim what was always going to be a historic moment regardless of the result.
Tunisia were unfortunate not to make it into the knock-out rounds given that they only needed a point from their last game against England – something they might well have secured if not for Jordan Pickford’s incredible save in injury time.
Tunisia manager Nabil Maaloul said that a lot of people thought we wouldn’t go through after dropping points, but he was more than confident that his side would qualify. He described France as the best team we faced, adding that we didn’t underestimate them and there is no shame in conceding to such quality opposition.
Due to Wahbi Khazri’s second-half goal, Tunisia won their first-ever competitive match against France and qualified for the World Cup 2022.
France won thanks to Antoine Griezmann scoring a penalty in injury time, meaning Tunisia missed out on getting past the group stages by just one goal difference. Tunisia manager Nabil Maaloul had great praise for his players and called the French the best team we faced.
Tunisia midfielder Saad Sassi gave an emotional interview after the game, saying: We were happy with our run at Russia 2018, especially because we achieved our objective of making history. We want to thank all Tunisians for supporting us.
Tunisia will now play qualifiers for Africa’s qualification tournament, where the winner qualifies automatically. Tunisia boss Nabil Maloul insisted before the match that Tunisia would do better this year than they did in Russia 2018 when they reached the quarterfinals.
Tunisia’s squad was depleted following the departure of six players who left for Qatar or China this summer. But Tunisia still boasted many stars like Fakhreddine Ben Youssef, Aymen Abdennour and the captain Hamdi Naguezid (who scored both goals against Panama).
Tunisia’s campaign started off brilliantly with a 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia. They also managed 2-1 victories over two Asian sides, Japan and Korea Republic respectively. In fact Tunisia are unbeaten since October 2017 having drawn four times and winning twice including their 1-0 defeat to Belgium in Sochi during the World Cup playoffs.
A tweet from the Belgian football federation reads: Only word can describe it… a pleasure! The Belgian tweet is accompanied by footage of Marouane Fellaini colliding with Tunisia goalkeeper Farouk Ben Mustapha and then punching him in an incident which went unpunished by referee Mark Geiger.