Tunisia national football team

The Tunisian football team in 1939.

Before independence, an unofficial team was formed in 1928, comprising the best Tunisian players from the Tunisian League. The team's first match was on 11 March 1928, against the France national football B team; Tunisia lost 8–2.[3] Their next friendlies, against the same team on 23 March 1930 and 26 March 1933, also resulted in heavy defeats: 0–5 and 1–6 respectively. Tunisia had to wait until 1939 for their first match win: a 4–1 victory over a team of amateur footballers of Paris.

The most capped players of this period are :

• Gustave Ducousso (Olympique Béja): 22 caps
• Gaetano Chiarenza (CS Hammam-Lif): 21 caps
• Azzopardi (Olympique Béja): 19 caps
• Larbi Ben Hassine -Larbi Bardo- (Espérance de Tunis): 16 caps
• Rachid Sehili (Étoile du Sahel): 16 caps
• Mehl (Racing Club): 15 caps
• Laâroussi Tsouri (Espérance de Tunis): 15 caps
• Ben Moussa (US Tunis): 15 caps
• Alaya Douik (Étoile du Sahel): 14 caps
• Dara (Sporting Club Tunis): 11 caps.

Chedly Zouiten (second from left), was the first president of the Tunisian Football Federation.

As soon as independence was proclaimed in 1956, Tunisian football leaders took the necessary steps to create an exclusively national body to replace the Tunisian Football League (an offshoot of the French Football Federation). These steps led to the creation of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF) headed by Chedly Zouiten, which was approved on 29 March 1957. Recognized as a public utility, the FTF has since invested in its dual mission of promoting football and managing the national competition as well as the different teams representing Tunisia in international competitions. In spite of that, Tunisia's national team has been set up before independence. Tunisian coach Rachid Turki has been appointed as Tunisia's first coach. A friendly match was held two days before independence, and this was in front of the Southwest French team. Tunisia succeeded in winning the match thanks to the goal of Ghariani.

Chetali in 1960. He was one of the best players in the history of Tunisia.

The Tunisian squad was the following: Zine el-Abidine Chennoufi, Sadok Dhaou (then Mohieddine Zeghir), Azaiez Jaballah, Driss Messaoud, Hassen Tasco, Abdou Béji, Ali Hannachi « Haj Ali », Amedée Scorsone, Hédi Braïek, Noureddine Diwa, Khemais Ghariani.

The Tunisian team also played a match with the Austrian team FC Admira Wacker Mödling on 30 December of the same year and managed to win 4–1 thanks to two goals from both Dهwa and Braïek and the Tunisian squad was as follows : Mohamed Bennour (then Houcine El Bez), Youssef Sehili, Azaiez Jaballah, Mokhtar Ben Nacef, Mehrez Jelassi, Abdou Béji, Ali Hannachi « Haj Ali », Abderrahman Ben Ezzedine, Hédi Braïek, Noureddine Diwa (then Khemais Ghariani), Hammadi Henia.

Tunisia gained independence from France on 20 March 1956. The Tunisian Football Federation was founded on 29 March 1957 and became affiliated to FIFA and the Confederation of African Football in 1960. The independent Tunisia played their first match against Algeria on 1 June 1957, in the midst of the Algerian War; Tunisia lost 2–1. They played their first official match at the 1957 Pan Arab Games where they won Libya 4–3 after scoring the first Tunisian goal in an official competition by Farzit. They also managed to get through Iraq and Lebanon before losing in the final against Syria 3–1. In 1960, the Yugoslavian Milan Kristić to be the first foreigner to coach the national team so Tunisia qualified for 1960 Summer Olympics which was their first international event after beating Malta, Morocco and Sudan; on 24 July 1960, the team experienced its biggest-ever defeat, losing 10–1 against Hungary. However, less than a month later, on 18 August 1960, Tunisia recorded their biggest-ever win: an 8–1 thumping of Taiwan. As for the Olympic Games, the results were very poor in the first game and despite the opening of the scoring by Kerrit in the third minute, but the Polish team returned in the game and won 6–1. They also lost to Argentina 2–1 before being defeated again, this time against Denmark 3–1.

Habib Bourguiba, President of the Republic, amid the Tunisian side that won the Palestine Cup in 1973.

Frane Matošić was appointed to coach the team as the second Yugoslav coach of the Tunisian team after Kristić led Tunisia to qualify for the Olympics. In 1962, Tunisia entered the African Cup of Nations qualifiers for the first time: the team qualified for the tournament after overcoming Morocco and Nigeria and went on to finish third after beating Uganda in the third-place match. Tunisian federation has appointed French coach André Gérard to train the team to continue contracting with foreign coaches. The team succeeded in crowning the 1963 Arab Nations Cup to be the first championship for the team, after achieving impressive results, including winning over Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Tunisia also qualified for the 1963 Africa Cup of Nations despite the exit from the first round. CAF decided that Tunisia would host the 1965 Africa Cup of Nations , despite the fact that only 9 years have passed since the independence of the country, in addition to a distinguished generation of players, most notably Abdelmajid Chetali and Attouga who reached the final after beating Ethiopia 4–0 in the opening match in Stade Chedly Zouiten,[4] but they lost 3–2 to Ghana in extra-time of the final.[5] Despite this early success, Tunisia did not enter the Cup of Nations again until 1976 in Ethiopia, and did not qualify for one until 1978.

Tunisia at the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina.

In 1973, however, the team entered the Palestine Cup of Nations and won in dominant fashion, winning all six of their matches overcoming Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Yemen and Iraq, scoring 19 goals, and conceding only three with the Tunisian coach Ameur Hizem.

Chetali qualified Tunisia for their first World Cup.

In February 1975, after a short experience of the Hungarian coach André Nagy, the coach of ES Sahel, Abdelmajid Chetali was hired. This coincided with the return of the team to the competition in the African Cup of Nations before going out against Sudan before it succeeded to qualify after the absence of 13 years in 1978 after overcoming Egypt and Guinea in qualifying. At the same time, the team was able to qualify for the first time in the FIFA World Cup in 1978 after a remarkable performance in the qualifiers led by a distinguished generation such as Mokhtar Dhouib, Néjib Ghommidh, Raouf Ben Aziza and Tarak Dhiab. They have reserved the only African seat by going to teams such as Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. Before the World Cup, Tunisia competed in the African Cup and won Uganda to find themselves in the semi-finals before losing to hosts Ghana to play third place match with Nigeria. Tunisia initially took the lead, but when Nigeria scored a controversial equalizer in the 42nd minute, the Tunisians walked off the pitch in protest and Nigeria were awarded a 2–0 victory by default.

At the World Cup in Argentina, Tunisia made an immediate impact by coming from behind after preparations were not at the desired level after a draw with Hungary 2–2 and a defeat from France 2–0 and another big defeat against Netherlands 4–0.

Kaabi, the first Tunisian player to score in the World Cup.

In the first game, Mexico managed to advance through a penalty in the first half to end the break 1–0 for the Mexican team. And before the start of the second half, Tunisian coach Chetali threw the Tunisian flag in front of the players and left the changing room. Tunisia managed to return to the game after Ali Kaabi scored the equalizer for Tunisia to enter history as the first Tunisian player to score a World Cup goal in the 55th minute before adding two goals to finish the game 3–1.

In the second match, they made a good performance against Poland before the team lost 1–0, but in the last game it was just around the corner to win the defending champion West Germany before the game ended 0–0. This performance has been admired by most analysts who did not expect it, and that has contributed to increasing the number of African teams qualified for the World Cup to become two. The team was received at Tunis–Carthage International Airport by Tunisians, provided by Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba, telling the players that they had accomplished the task of 50 ambassadors, because they contributed to the known of Tunisia internationally.

After this impressive performance, coach Abdelmajid Chetali decided to resign after a remarkable period in which he managed to reach the Tunisian national team to the international level. However, the period that will come after his resignation will be filled with several disturbances that have lasted for years.

Abdelhamid Hergal, one of the best Tunisian players of the eighties.

Following their first experience of World Cup football, Tunisia experienced a sudden decline after the passage of Tunisian coaches such as Ameur Hizem and Hmid Dhib who withdrew the team in the World Cup qualifiers in 1982 against Nigeria despite the participation of dozens of players who played the previous edition. Between 1980 and 1992, the team managed to qualify for only two tournaments – the 1982 African Cup of Nations and the 1988 Summer Olympics – and in both they were knocked out in the first round. In fact, Tunisia qualified for the African Cup hosted by neighbor Libya with Polish coach Ryszard Kulesza after being banned in 1980 African Cup but achieved negative results: drew with Cameroon 1–1 in the first game before being defeated against Libya 2–0 and Ghana 1–0 to withdraw by only one point. Kulesza failed also to qualify for the 1984 African Cup after the defeat against Egypt, which precipitated his departure. Coach Youssef Zouaoui was appointed to oversee the team and had a good start by winning friendly matches against Nigeria 5–0 and Canada 2–0 and also surpassed Benin and Guinea in the first rounds of the World Cup qualifiers in 1986. However, he failed to qualify for the 1986 African Cup of Nations after the defeat to the Libyan team, which was strong in that period. But that did not prevent them from reaching the last round of the World Cup qualifiers by beating Nigeria before being defeated in front of Algeria, which qualified for the second time.

Tarak Dhiab scored Tunisia's qualification goal for the 1988 Olympic Games.

The former Cameroon coach Jean Vincent was hired but failed to qualify for the 1988 African Cup in Morocco after defeat against Algeria. He also achieved catastrophic results in the Football at the African Games with defeats against Cameroon, Madagascar and Kenya. He was immediately sacked. Taoufik Ben Othman was appointed who was the former assistant coach of Chetali in the team of 1978 team. The results improved relatively as they qualified for the Olympic Games after surpassing Morocco (thanks to the goal of Tarak Dhiab in the last minute) and Egypt in the qualifiers but Ben Othman was sacked days before the start of the competition after the poor results in the 1988 Arab Nations Cup and the failure to win in their matches against Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq, as well as the bad results in friendly matches against Malta, Finland and East Germany.

Faouzi Benzarti supervised the team after the first match of AFCON 1994.

The Polish coach Antoni Piechniczek was temporarily appointed and supervised the team in the first round of World Cup qualifiers 1990 and also In the finals of the Olympic Games where results were not good after drawing with China 0–0 and Sweden 2–2 and a heavy defeat from West Germany 1–4.

Mokhtar Tlili was appointed coach but the results did not improve by not qualifying for the African Cup in Algeria 1990 after the heavy defeat to Senegal, which precipitated his departure and the arrival of Antoni Piechniczek again and did not succeed in the World Cup qualifiers in 1990 after the defeat in the last round against Cameroon to be contracted with coach Mrad Mahjoub. Although he was unable to qualify for the 1992 African Cup again, the federation renewed confidence in him because of the respectable performance he had given in the qualifiers because the team was eliminated with goal difference to Egypt, in addition to winning Belgium in a friendly match but the early exit from the World Cup qualifiers in 1994 contributed to his dismissal after a draw with Morocco to be replaced by coach Youssef Zouaoui before the 1994 African Cup to be hosted in Tunisia so the team managed to break the streak in 1994 by hosting that year's African Cup of Nations replacing original hosts Zaire, but the result was catastrophic and unexpected with a defeat by Mali 2–0 in the opening game at El Menzah Stadium in front of 45,000, which contributed to the dismissal of Zouaoui after the opening match and compensated by Faouzi Benzarti, who drew with Zaire in the second game finishing bottom of the group.

Kasperczak guided the team to qualify for the 1998 World Cup after 20 years.

After confirming the decline of the Tunisian football, it was decided to hire a coach who knows the African football well. The former coach of Côte d'Ivoire Henryk Kasperczak was appointed, and the team's results were gradually improved. They managed to qualify for the African Cup for the first time in 14 years through the qualification after overcoming Liberia and Senegal.

At the finals of 1996 African Cup of Nations, Tunisia began badly after a draw against Mozambique and a defeat from Ghana, but they finished second in their group, putting them through to the quarter-finals surpassing the first round for the first time since 1978 after winning Côte d'Ivoire 3–1. Tunisia went on to beat Gabon in the quarter-finals and Zambia in the semi-finals 4–2 to reach their first major final in 31 years, but lost to host country South Africa 2–0.

Krautzun qualified the team for the 2002 World Cup.

This performance was appreciated by the Tunisian fans who did not expect this development in the team led by a new generation, most notably Chokri El Ouaer, Zoubeir Baya and Adel Sellimi. They were also received by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at the airport.

In that period Tunisia qualified to the 1996 Olympic Games after surpassing Guinea. The team did not rise to what was expected after the defeat from Portugal and the United States with the same result 2–0 in addition to the draw with Argentina 1-1 which eliminated them from the group stage.

Still under the leadership of Kasperczak, They qualified for the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations after defeating Guinea and Sierra Leone and qualified for the final quarter in the lead of the group with a win over DR Congo, Togo and defeat from Ghana. In the quarter-final, where they were eliminated in a penalty shootout by host country Burkina Faso.

In that period, the team qualified for the second round of World Cup qualifiers after beating Rwanda. Tunisia was placed in the group 2 with Egypt, which was a strong candidate for the qualification, but Tunisia managed to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup for the second time in its history and the first since 20 years after winning Egypt, Liberia and Namibia. The team played some friendly matches before the World Cup with Wales (won 4–0), Austria (lost 1–2) and Chile (lost 2–3). In the finals, they failed to advance from the group stages, losing 2–0 to England and 1–0 to Colombia, and drawing 1–1 with Romania. Kasperczak was sacked and replaced with the Italian coach Francesco Scoglio, who qualified the team for the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations ideally after winning over Algeria, Uganda and Liberia.

Trabelsi participated with Tunisia in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

Tunisia qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition for the third consecutive time with difficulty after the defeat in the first round of Nigeria and the victory over Congo and draw with Morocco as the team managed to qualify for the semi-final by overcoming Egypt before they lost three to Cameroon and finish the competition in fourth place with a loss from South Africa on penalty shootout.

The following year, Scoglio departed to rejoin Genoa CFC, sparking a period of severe instability. The German coach Eckhard Krautzun, was appointed and qualified the team to the 2000 Africa Cup of Nations with difficulty with a group that includes Morocco, Gabon and Kenya, he Succeeded to lead the team to the World Cup in South Korea and Japan for the third time in its history with a difficult group, including Côte d'Ivoire and the DR Congo. Krautsen was sacked surprisingly despite the good results after a sharp dispute with the Tunisian Football Federation officials. Henri Michel replaced him, but was sacked when Tunisia crashed out of the 2002 African Cup of Nations without scoring a single goal after a draw with Senegal and Zambia and defeat from Egypt. Finally, Ammar Souayah took over in time for the 2002 World Cup; The team drew in friendly matches with Norway and South Korea and were defeated by Denmark and Slovenia. In the finals, Tunisia could not do better than 1998 performance, drawing 1–1 with Belgium but losing 2–0 to Russia and co-hosts Japan making the federation look for a big coach before the start of the 2004 African Cup hosted by Tunisia.

Lemerre, the most successful manager of Tunisia after winning the 2004 African Cup.

After the 2002 World Cup, former France manager Roger Lemerre took over, becoming Tunisia's fifth manager in less than two years. As well as steadying the ship, Lemerre was tasking with winning the 2004 African Cup of Nations, which Tunisia would be hosting because his coaching career entitles him to coach the team as he won the 1998 FIFA World Cup as an assistant, the UEFA Euro 2000 and the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup. During the build-up to the tournament, the team established themselves as favourites with several impressive friendly results, holding France and Portugal to 1–1 draws and beating Sweden 1–0 in addition to the good results with the African giants by beating Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. All these indicators in addition to hosting the tournament put the Tunisian team strong candidate to win the cup.

Tunisia advanced unbeaten from the group stage, beating Rwanda 2–1 in the opening match of the tournament before winning the second game against DR Congo 3–0, and drawing 1–1 with Guinea. The team then beat Senegal 1–0 in the quarter-final thanks to the goal of Jawhar Mnari in the 65th minute and Nigeria on penalties 5–3 in the semi-final after a 1–1 draw to face Morocco in the final, where goals from Francileudo Santos and Ziad Jaziri gave Tunisia a 2–1 win which means that Tunisia won the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in its history. Lemerre became the first coach to win two different continental tournaments, having previously won Euro 2000 with France. The victory gave birth to the Tunisian team's present nickname, the "Eagles of Carthage", and accordingly, the team's badge was changed to its current design, which incorporates an eagle.

In the same period, Tunisia qualified for the fourth time in its history for the 2004 Olympic Games surpassing after a strong group including Egypt, Nigeria and Senegal overcame itself in Athens in the face of big teams. Tunisia was just around the qualification to the quarter-finals of the competition but the goal difference prevented it. After a 1–1 draw with Australia and a 2–0 defeat by Argentina to add to beat Serbia 3–2 to leave good impressions in the competition and devote their international presence.

2004 African Cup of Nations win qualified them for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, where they were drawn in a difficult group including host Germany, Argentina and Australia. The opening match of this tournament was between Tunisia and Argentina, who narrowly won 2–1. In the second match, the Tunisians fought back to the 74th minute where they accepted three goals from the German team to finish the score 3–0, while in the third game they managed to beat Australia 2 -0 to leave good impressions.

Tunisia and Germany while warming up before the match during 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.

In the same year the Tunisian team played the World Cup qualifiers in 2006, and they succeeded in acquiring Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana and Morocco, which drew them in the last round 2–2 at Stade 7 November in front of 65,000 spectators, which enabled the Tunisian national to qualify for the World Cup for the fourth time in its history and third in a row, which is dedicated to the African domination of the Tunisian team. The following year, they failed to defend their continental cup of Nations title, losing to Nigeria in the quarter-finals on penalties 6–5 after a 1–1 draw despite the good start in the group stage after winning Zambia 4–1 and South Africa 2–0.

Tunisia-Ukraine match during 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Before the start of the 2006 World Cup, they played some friendly matches which were generally good after a 0–0 draw over Uruguay and a 3–0 victory over Belarus. In the finals they failed again in the group stage after a draw in the first round with Saudi Arabia 2–2 in Munich. In the second round the team played with Spain which was one of the most powerful teams in the world led by Raúl, Iker Casillas, Carles Puyol and Sergio Ramos and Tunisia managed to progress in the result in the 8th minute through the goal of Jawhar Mnari, but the team conceded 3 goals in the last minutes to defeat hard 3–1. In the last round, the team lost to Ukraine 1–0 thanks to Shevchenko's goal with a penalty to leave Tunisia the World Cup with a single point

After the World Cup, the team managed to qualify for the 2008 African Cup after qualifying over Sudan, Seychelles and Mauritius. Tunisia has been a candidate for the African Championship after the outstanding performance in recent years in addition to the presence of seven players from the Étoile Sportive du Sahel, which was the champions of Africa at that time and Tunisia was able to qualify for the quarter-finals in the lead after beating South Africa 3–1 and tie With Senegal 2–2 and Angola 0–0 but they were very hard to beat Cameroon 3–2 in extra time to leave Tunisia from the quarter-finals again. On 30 June 2008, Roger Lemerre left Tunisia after six years, the longest reign of any of the team's coaches. He was replaced by Portuguese coach Humberto Coelho.

Tunisia-Mozambique on 6 June 2009 for 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Coaching staff of Tunisia during the 2010 African Cup led by Faouzi Benzarti.

Under Coelho, Tunisia qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup qualifiers started well with a win over Kenya[6][7] and Mozambique[8][9] and a tie-up with Nigeria in the last minute in Abuja Stadium in front of 60,000. It took only one point to qualify before the 83rd minute defeat in Mozambique to leave the place for Nigeria,[10][11] Coelho was sacked immediately and coach Faouzi Benzarti was hired to oversee the team at the 2010 African Cup; he too was sacked after Tunisia were eliminated from the group stage, drawing all three of their matches against Gabon, Cameroon, and Zambia finishing in the bottom of the group. In June 2010, Bertrand Marchand was appointed manager on a two-year contract, with the goal of reaching the semifinals of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations especially after the excellent results he achieved with ES Sahel at the African and international level. However, qualification started badly, with two defeats against Botswana[12][13] and a 2–2[14] draw against Malawi bringing the Tunisian team to 65th place in the FIFA rankings, the worst in its history. Marchand was sacked in December, only six months into his two-year term.

Tunisia-Gabon on 17 January 2010 for 2010 African Cup.

The beginning of 2011 saw tough political events in Tunisia. Against this turbulent backdrop, and with little preparation under new coach Sami Trabelsi, the team surprisingly won the 2011 African Nations Championship, following wins against Senegal,[15] Angola[16] and Rwanda[17] in the first round as well as DR Congo[18] and Algeria[19] in the playoffs and defeating Angola 3–0[20] in the final making the federation extend the Trabelsi's contract. Tunisia went on to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations and managed to qualify for the next round after beating Morocco[21] and Niger[22] and defeat from Gabon[23] but an extra-time defeat to Ghana knocked them out in the quarter-finals yet again.[24] Tunisia fared even worse in the following tournament which the qualification was difficult against Sierra Leone,[25][26] falling in the group stages after a big defeat against Côte d'Ivoire 3–0[27] in addition to the draw with Togo[28] despite a 1–0 win over Algeria[29] in which Youssef Msakni scored what was later voted the goal of the tournament. In February 2013, Sami Trabelsi was replaced by Nabil Maâloul.

Under Maâloul, the results worsened because Tunisia failed to make the World Cup qualification playoffs after a 2–0 defeat to Cape Verde national football team although the results of the World Cup qualifiers were good initially by beating Equatorial Guinea[30][31] and Sierra Leone,[32][33] but Cape Verde were found to have fielded an ineligible player and Tunisia were awarded a 3–0 victory,[34] putting them through to the playoffs. With Maâloul having already resigned, the Dutch coach Ruud Krol took over for the two-leg playoff, but Tunisia lost 4–1[35][36] to Cameroon and Krol himself then resigned let the Tunisian team go in a bad way.

Tunisia-Belgium friendly match on 7 June 2014.

Belgian coach Georges Leekens was appointed in early 2014 to try and revive the team's fortunes. Early results were positive, including a (1–1)[37] draw against Colombia and a 1–0 win over South Korea,[38] both in friendly matches. Under Leekens, the team climbed from 49th to 22nd in few months in the FIFA rankings so the team regained its continental luster after the emergence of a new generation of players. Tunisia qualified for the 2015 African Cup of Nations and finished top of their strong group including Senegal,[39][40] Egypt[41][42] and Botswana.[43][44] At the finals of the tournament, Tunisia finished top of their group for the first time since 2008 winning Zambia 2–1[45] and drawing with Cape Verde[46] and DR Congo[47] with the same result 1–1 but were eliminated in the quarter-finals after a controversial 2–1[48] defeat to the host Equatorial Guinea making CAF banned the referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn for six months for his "poor performance" at the tournament. In June 2015, Leekens resigned surprisingly for security reasons after he restored the glamor of the team. In July 2015, Henryk Kasperczak returned as coach after 17 years. He managed to qualify the team for the 2017 African Cup in the lead with victory over Liberia,[49][50] Togo[51][52] and Djibouti.[53][54]

Tunisia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

He reached also the quarter-finals of the competition after beating Algeria[55] and Zimbabwe[56] 4-2 before losing again in this round, this time against Burkina Faso 2–0.[57] The defeats in friendly matches against Cameroon[58] and Morocco[59] with the same result 1–0 led to the dismissal of Kasperczak. On 27 April 2017, Nabil Maâloul returned as coach despite the disapproval of the Tunisian supporters following the failure at the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, but this time he qualified Tunisia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia for the fifth time in the history of Tunisia and the first since 12 years after winning against DR Congo,[60][61] Guinea[62][63] and Libya[64][65] in the qualification. Tunisia's qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and its positive results in the friendlies against Iran[66] and Costa Rica[67] led to its rise to 14th place in the FIFA World Rankings for the first time ever, after being first in African teams and surpassing teams like Italy and Netherlands. The team also continued its good results before the World Cup, with a draw with Turkey[68] and Portugal,[69] with the same score 2–2, in addition to a difficult defeat against Spain 1–0 in the 85th minute.[70] Despite this, in the World Cup, the performance of the team did not rise to the expected level, and was once again eliminated from the group stage after losing 1–2 against England because of Harry Kane's goal in the last minute[71] and a complete 2–5 thrash against Belgium,[72] before winning the last game 2–1 against Panama,[73] the first World Cup win for Tunisia since beating Mexico 3–1 in 1978. Thus, all the wins of Tunisia in the World Cup were against the CONCACAF teams. Because of this dismal performance, Tunisian squad was heavily criticized for its unpromising performance and the team's dubious record in World Cup, and fell out of top 20 teams on FIFA ranking.

The team went through a short experience with Faouzi Benzarti, who managed to qualify for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations surpassing Egypt,[74][75] Niger[76][77] and Eswatini[78][79] before being fired due to problems between him and the president of the Tunisian Football Federation Wadii Jarii.

In December 2018, French coach Alain Giresse was hired to oversee the team at the 2019 AFCON finals due to his experience in African football and his outstanding record as a player with the French national team. Despite the good results in friendly matches by defeating World Cup finalist Croatia 2–1, the start of the competition was poor after three draws in the group stage against Angola 1–1[80] and Mali in the same result 1–1[81] before a 0–0[82] draw against Mauritania to qualify for the Round 16 with great difficulty in second place. In the next round, the results improved by beating Ghana on penalties,[83] to qualify for the quarter-finals and also beat the surprise of the tournament Madagascar 3–0[84] to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time in 15 years when Tunisia won the AFCON in 2004 before they narrowly lost to Senegal 1–0[85] in extra time after a referee dispute of Bamlak Tessema because of not giving a clear penalty to Tunisia 4 minutes before the end of the game to complete the competition in fourth place behind Nigeria.[86] Nonetheless, it stands as the best performance of Tunisia since winning 2004 AFCON at home.

Alain Giresse was abandoned despite achieving the goal stipulated in the contract, so the Tunisian coach Mondher Kebaier was called in on 27 August 2019 to supervise the team. Under Kebaier's command, Tunisia didn't perform at full potential in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification, but it secured one of the top two positions in their qualification group to reach the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, with three of four Tunisia's games ended with Tunisia scoring only one goal each with the exception of Libya.

Tunisia-Algeria match in the 2013 African Cup won by Tunisia 1–0.

Tunisia played until today 45 games against Algeria.

The first match took place on 1 June 1957 in a friendly match against the FLN football team when Algeria was a French colony. It was at this time that the matches were the most regular. Indeed, the two teams met six times, between June 1957 and May 1958, with eight victories for the Algerians.

After the independence of Algeria, the first official match took place on 15 December 1963, in a friendly match at the Stade Chedly Zouiten in Tunisia. The teams also met three times in the qualifying phase of the World Cup in 1970, 1978 and 1986. The overall record is slightly favorable to the Algerians with sixteen wins, fourteen draws and fourteen losses. The last defeat of Algeria against their neighbors dated back to 20 January 2017 during the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations which was hosted by Gabon. Before this match, the two teams had met once in the African Cup of Nations finals in 2013, which was also dominated by the Tunisians. Currently, the Algerians dominate the head-to-head record and international achievement, nonetheless, in official competitions, Tunisia proves to be more dominant than Algeria.

Tunisia-Morocco match on 5 June 2010 in Casablanca.

Tunisians and Moroccans have played 50 games since their independence from France in 1956.

Their first match was for the 1962 World Cup qualification, took place on 30 October 1960 in Casablanca. Most of the matches were played in the FIFA World Cup qualification as they met in the qualifiers of 1962, 1970, 1978, 1990, 1994 and 2006. They also met 4 times in the African Cup of Nations. Two of them ended in a draw in 1978 and 2000 and the other two matches with the victory of the Tunisian team in 2004 and 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

In fact, their most important match was the 2004 African Cup of Nations Final in Stade 7 November in Tunisia, where the Tunisians won their first African title. The overall record is favorable to the Moroccans with 13 wins, 28 draws and 9 losses; but Tunisia has managed to dominate majority of official encounters in major competitions. The last match between the Maghrebian teams dated back to 28 March 2017 during a friendly match won by Morocco in Marrakech which contributed to the dismissal of the Tunisian coach Henryk Kasperczak.

The two teams are similar in terms of both having a single African Cup and the two teams have also qualified for five World Cups, despite their numerous World Cup qualifying matches. They qualified for the same tournament in 1998 in France and 2018 in Russia.

The match between the Egyptian and the Tunisian team are one of Africa's best and most exciting matches for their long continental history. The two teams have met 39 times in both official and friendly matches. Tunisian and Egyptian teams have collected 25 official matches and 14 friendly matches. The overall record is slightly favorable to the Tunisians as they won 16 matches and Egypt won 12 matches and ended 11 matches with a draw; however Egypt has achieved more successes in Africa than Tunisia.

Tunisia-Egypt in a friendly match in October 2012 in Abu Dhabi.

The Eagles scored 42 goals in the Pharaohs' goal, while Egypt scored only 35 goals against Tunisia. The largest goal scoring match was on 11 December 1977 for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF) after the great win of the Tunisians 4–1 which contributed in their qualification for the World Cup.

Tunisia have faced the Egyptian team 7 times in qualifying for either the World Cup or the African Nations Cup. The three World Cup qualifications were in 1974, 1978 and 1998 where Tunisia qualified in the last two editions against Egypt. The four qualifiers for the African Nations Cup were in 1978 (Tunisia won 3–2 after drawing 2–2), 1984 (0–0 draw in Tunis and the Pharaohs won in Cairo 1–0), 1992 (the teams drew 2–2 twice) and 2015 (Tunisia won 1–0 and 2–1 respectively), in addition to the current 2019 qualifiers for the fifth time, which Tunisia won the first game 1–0 in Radès and lost the second game in Alexandria 2–3.

The two teams met twice in the African Nations Cup finals in 2000 in Nigeria when Tunisia won 1–0 and in the next edition in 2002 in Mali when Egypt won with the same result. Hossam Hassan is the most of Egyptian players participating in the games of the Pharaohs against the Eagles of Carthage with 12 games, while Wahbi Khazri comes as the most of Tunisian players to participate in their matches against Egypt by 3 games.

Both Egypt and Tunisia also share a similar dubious record in the FIFA World Cup, with both teams being unable to progress beyond the group stage despite Tunisia qualifying for the World Cup five times, while Egypt qualified only three times.

Tunisia playing against Ivory Coast.

Tunisia participated in the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 1962. In that year the country came in third by defeating Uganda in the third place match 3–0. That tournament, however, only four countries took part. In 1965 Tunisia was allowed to act as host country and made it to the final, where they lost 2–3 against Ghana.

Tunisia did not reach the final again until 1996, and again finished as runners-up, this time losing 0–2 to hosts South Africa. Tunisia's biggest success in the tournament came 8 years later, when as hosts they reached the final for the third time and were victorious, defeating Morocco 2–1. Francileudo Santos and Ziad Jaziri scored the goals for Tunisia.

Africa Cup of Nations record											Africa Cup of Nations qualification record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	Squad		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Ref
1957	Not affiliated to CAF										Not affiliated to CAF						—
1959																	—
1962	Third place	3rd	2	1	0	1	5	4	Squad		4	3	0	1	7	2	[102]
1963	Group stage	5th	2	0	1	1	3	5	Squad		2	1	0	1	6	5	[103]
1965	Runners-up	2nd	3	1	1	1	6	3	Squad		Qualified as hosts						[104]
1968	Did not qualify										4	1	1	2	5	5
1970	Did not enter										Did not enter						—
1972																	—
1974																	—
1976	Did not qualify										6	3	1	2	8	7	[105]
1978	Fourth place	4th	5	1	3	1	5	4	Squad		4	2	1	1	10	7	[106]
1980	Withdrew										Banned						—
1982	Group stage	7th	3	0	1	2	1	4	Squad		2	1	1	0	1	0	[107]
1984	Did not qualify										4	2	1	1	6	1	[108]
1986											2	1	0	1	1	2	[109]
1988											2	0	1	1	1	2	[110]
1990											2	0	0	2	0	4	[111]
1992											6	3	3	0	10	5	[112]
1994	Group stage	9th	2	0	1	1	1	3	Squad		Qualified as hosts						[113]
1996	Runners-up	2nd	6	2	2	2	10	9	Squad		8	3	4	1	7	2	[114]
1998	Quarter-finals	5th	4	2	1	1	6	5	Squad		3	2	0	1	3	1	[115]
2000	Fourth place	4th	6	2	2	2	6	9	Squad		6	5	0	1	13	3	[116]
2002	Group stage	11th	3	0	2	1	0	1	Squad		6	2	2	2	9	7	[117]
2004	Champions	1st	6	4	2	0	10	4	Squad		Qualified as hosts						[118]
2006	Quarter-finals	6th	4	2	1	1	7	5	Squad		10	6	3	1	25	9	[119]
2008	Quarter-finals	5th	4	1	2	1	7	6	Squad		6	4	1	1	12	3	[120]
2010	Group stage	12th	3	0	3	0	3	3	Squad		12	7	3	2	18	7	[121]
2012	Quarter-finals	6th	4	2	0	2	5	5	Squad		8	4	2	2	14	6	[122]
2013	Group stage	12th	3	1	1	1	2	4	Squad		2	0	2	0	2	2	[123]
2015	Quarter-finals	7th	4	1	2	1	5	5	Squad		6	4	2	0	6	2	[124]
2017	Quarter-finals	8th	4	2	0	2	6	7	Squad		6	4	1	1	16	3	[125]
2019	Fourth place	4th	7	1	4	2	6	5	Squad		6	4	1	1	16	3	[126]
2021	Qualified										4	3	1	0	7	2	—
2023	To be determined										To be determined						—
2025																	—
Total	1 Title	20/33	75	23	29	23	94	91	—		119	65	30	24	193	88	—

Tunisia's African Cup record
First Match	Tunisia 2–4 Ethiopia  (Adis Ababa, Ethiopia; 14 January 1962)
Biggest Win	Tunisia 4–0 Ethiopia  (Tunis, Tunisia; 12 November 1965)
Biggest Defeat	Cameroon 3–0 Tunisia  (Accra, Ghana; 10 February 2000)  Guinea 3–0 Tunisia  (Alexandria, Egypt; 30 January 2006)  Ivory Coast 3–0 Tunisia  (Rustenburg, South Africa; 26 January 2013)
Best Result	Champions in 2004
Worst Result	Group stage in 1963, 1982, 1994, 2002, 2010, 2013

African National Team of the Year

• 1995, 1999, 2004, 2005
• 1996, 1997

The following players were called up for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches against Tanzania on 13 and 17 November 2020.[127]
Caps and goals updated on 17 November 2020 after the match against Tanzania.[128] Only official FIFA matches are included.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Farouk Ben Mustapha	(1989-07-01) 1 July 1989	34	0	Espérance
16	1GK	Aymen Dahmen	(1997-01-28) 28 January 1997	0	0	Sfax
22	1GK	Moez Ben Cherifia	(1991-06-24) 24 June 1991	22	0	Espérance
2	2DF	Wajdi Kechrida	(1995-11-05) 5 November 1995	12	0	Étoile du Sahel
3	2DF	Montassar Talbi	(1998-05-26) 26 May 1998	0	0	Çaykur Rizespor
4	2DF	Yassine Meriah	(1993-07-02) 2 July 1993	46	3	Çaykur Rizespor
5	2DF	Oussama Haddadi	(1992-01-28) 28 January 1992	25	0	Kasımpaşa
6	2DF	Dylan Bronn	(1995-06-19) 19 June 1995	24	1	Metz
12	2DF	Ali Maâloul	(1990-01-01) 1 January 1990	63	1	Al Ahly
19	2DF	Ayman Ben Mohamed	(1994-12-08) 8 December 1994	14	0	Yukatel Denizlispor
20	2DF	Mohamed Dräger	(1996-06-25) 25 June 1996	16	1	Olympiacos
8	3MF	Saîf-Eddine Khaoui	(1995-04-27) 27 April 1995	17	4	Marseille
9	3MF	Hamza Rafia	(1999-04-22) 22 April 1999	7	0	Juventus U23
13	3MF	Ferjani Sassi	(1992-03-18) 18 March 1992	58	5	Zamalek
14	3MF	Mohamed Amine Ben Amor	(1992-05-03) 3 May 1992	34	3	Étoile du Sahel
15	3MF	Marc Lamti	(2001-01-28) 28 January 2001	3	0	Hannover 96
17	3MF	Ellyes Skhiri	(1995-05-10) 10 May 1995	32	0	Köln
18	3MF	Saad Bguir	(1994-03-22) 22 March 1994	12	5	Abha
21	3MF	Anis Ben Slimane	(2001-03-16) 16 March 2001	4	1	Brøndby
23	3MF	Naïm Sliti	(1992-07-27) 27 July 1992	45	11	Al-Ettifaq
7	4FW	Youssef Msakni	(1990-10-28) 28 October 1990	66	12	Al-Duhail
10	4FW	Wahbi Khazri	(1991-02-08) 8 February 1991	57	19	Saint-Étienne
11	4FW	Nabil Makni	(2001-09-29) 29 September 2001	2	0	Chievo

The following players have been called up to the squad within the last 12 months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Elias Damergy	(2002-10-17) 17 October 2002	0	0	Rennes	v.  Tanzania, 13 November 2020 PRE
GK	Bechir Ben Said	(1994-11-29) 29 November 1994	0	0	Monastir	v.  Nigeria, 13 October 2020
DF	Saddam Ben Aziza	(1991-02-08) 8 February 1991	4	0	Étoile du Sahel	v.  Tanzania, 13 November 2020 PRE
DF	Jasser Khmiri	(1997-07-27) 27 July 1997	2	0	Vancouver Whitecaps	v.  Nigeria, 13 October 2020
DF	Omar Rekik	(2001-12-20) 20 December 2001	0	0	Hertha BSC	v.  Nigeria, 13 October 2020
MF	Elyès Jlassi	(1994-04-22) 22 April 1994	2	0	Monastir	v.  Tanzania, 13 November 2020 PRE
MF	Ahmed Khalil	(1994-12-21) 21 December 1994	6	0	Club Africain	v.  Nigeria, 13 October 2020
FW	Seifeddine Jaziri	(1993-02-12) 12 February 1993	3	0	Al Mokawloon Al Arab	v.  Nigeria, 13 October 2020
INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury. PRE Preliminary squad. SUS Player is serving a suspension. WD Player withdrew for personal reasons.

Key

The list shown below shows the Tunisia national football team all-time international record against opposing nations.

Opponent	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Algeria	45	14	15	16	39	45	−6
Angola	6	3	3	0	14	4	+10
Argentina	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1
Australia	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1
Austria	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3
Bahrain	2	1	0	1	3	1	+2
Belarus	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3
Belgium	4	1	1	2	5	8	−3
Benin	9	6	3	0	24	6	+18
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1
Botswana	6	3	1	2	9	5	+4
Brazil	1	0	0	1	1	4	−3
Bulgaria	2	1	1	0	6	3	+3
Burkina Faso	6	1	3	2	7	7	0
Burundi	2	2	0	0	3	1	+2
Cameroon	17	2	6	9	18	29	−11
Canada	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Cape Verde	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3
Central African Republic	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3
Chad	4	3	1	0	10	2	+8
Chile	1	0	0	1	2	3	−1
China PR	4	1	2	1	3	3	0
Chinese Taipei	1	1	0	0	8	1	+7
Colombia	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1
Congo	9	6	2	1	17	6	+11
Costa Rica	1	1	0	0	1	0	+1
Croatia	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1
Denmark	2	0	0	2	2	5	−3
Djibouti	2	2	0	0	11	1	+10
DR Congo	13	6	4	3	24	13	+11
East Germany	4	0	0	4	0	11	−11
Egypt	39	16	11	13	44	38	+6
England	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3
Equatorial Guinea	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1
Ethiopia	8	4	2	2	17	11	+6
Finland	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4
France	4	0	2	2	3	7	−4
Gabon	11	4	6	1	21	12	+9
Gambia	1	0	0	1	1	2	−1
Georgia	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2
Germany	3	0	2	1	1	4	−3
Ghana	16	4	4	8	19	24	−5
Guinea	20	9	4	7	31	19	+12
Guinea-Bissau	1	0	0	0	3	1	+2
Hungary	1	0	0	1	1	10	−9
Iceland	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2
India	1	0	1	0	2	2	0
Iran	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1
Iraq	10	6	3	1	17	10	+7
Republic of Ireland	1	0	0	1	0	4	−4
Italy	1	0	0	1	0	4	−4
Ivory Coast	18	6	6	6	26	27	−1
Japan	4	0	0	4	0	6	−6
Jordan	3	2	1	0	12	3	+9
Kenya	7	5	1	1	10	3	+7
Kuwait	4	3	0	1	8	4	+4
Latvia	1	1	0	0	3	0	+3
Lebanon	5	3	1	1	9	5	+4
Liberia	10	5	2	3	17	9	+8
Libya	23	13	3	7	38	19	+9
Madagascar	4	3	0	1	5	4	+1
Malawi	7	2	3	2	16	8	+8
Mali	9	5	0	4	11	8	+3
Malta	12	4	4	4	13	9	+4
Mauritania	11	9	2	0	22	5	+17
Mauritius	2	1	1	0	2	0	+2
Mexico	1	1	0	0	3	1	+2
Morocco	50	9	28	13	46	53	−7
Mozambique	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1
Namibia	3	3	0	0	8	1	+7
Netherlands	3	0	2	1	3	7	−4
Niger	3	3	0	0	6	3	+3
Nigeria	17	6	6	5	23	17	+6
Norway	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2
Oman	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1
Palestine	2	1	1	0	7	3	+4
Panama	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1
Peru	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Poland	4	1	0	3	2	9	−7
Portugal	2	0	2	0	3	3	0
Qatar	3	1	0	2	5	3	+2
Romania	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Russia	1	0	0	1	0	2	−2
Rwanda	6	6	0	0	18	3	+15
Saudi Arabia	7	3	2	2	7	6	+1
Senegal	20	9	7	4	22	12	+10
Serbia	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1
Seychelles	4	4	0	0	14	0	+14
Sierra Leone	7	3	3	1	10	6	+4
Slovenia	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1
Somalia	1	1	0	0	2	1	+1
South Africa	6	3	1	2	9	7	+2
South Korea	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1
South Sudan	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Soviet Union	1	0	0	1	0	3	−3
Spain	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3
Sudan	10	7	0	3	25	11	+14
Sweden	4	1	1	2	2	3	−1
Switzerland	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2
Eswatini	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2
Syria	10	5	1	4	16	12	+4
Togo	10	7	3	0	19	4	+15
Turkey	6	0	5	1	4	7	−3
Uganda	5	5	0	0	16	1	+15
Ukraine	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1
United Arab Emirates	4	4	0	0	9	1	+8
United States	1	0	1	0	1	1	0
Uruguay	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Wales	1	1	0	0	4	0	+4
West Germany	5	1	0	4	1	11	−10
Yugoslavia	5	1	0	4	3	21	−18
Zambia	12	7	2	3	19	12	+7
Zimbabwe	2	1	1	0	5	3	+2