Tunisia have some talented players but many of them play in the Middle East and north Africa so might be unfamiliar to football fans elsewhere. They face a difficult group, going up against France, Denmark and Australia, and they also lack firepower up front which will likely cost them. They know how to battle though, hence they are in Qatar…
The manager
Jalel Kadri will be one of the more unassuming coaches at the World Cup. At the beginning of year, he was regarded as a useful assistant to Mondher Kebaier, who himself was quite underwhelming. Following a disappointing Africa Cup of Nations, Kebaier was sacked and, a month before the final round of World Cup qualifying, Tunisia handed the keys to someone already familiar with the squad: Kadri.
Since his appointment, not much has changed. Tunisia are still a difficult side to break down but they also struggle to score goals from open play.
Kadri did not play top-level football and has never coached a major club in Tunisia, but he has helped three Tunisian sides (Jendouba Sport, ES Zarzis and US Monastir) gain promotion to the first division, perhaps indicating that he can fashion the “bunker mentality” needed in tournament play.
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The household name you haven’t heard of yet
The thorny truth about the Tunisian national team is that many of the more senior players are household names in Africa and Asia but European football supporters have never heard of them. Over the last decade, as billions of dollars have poured into domestic leagues across the region, scores of players from the Maghreb preferred to earn lavish salaries in Egypt and the Gulf rather than attempt to make it in Europe.
The careers of captain Youssef Msakni, midfielder Ferjani Sassi, or wing-back Ali Maaloul are all examples. Msakni in particular — Tunisia’s best player — always had the talent to play in a top European league, but chose the more comfortable route of competing in the Qatar Stars League.
Just a few weeks before the 2018 World Cup, he suffered a knee injury that kept him off the pitch in Russia. Now aged 32, there is a good chance Qatar 2022 will be his first and last World Cup. He’ll be very motivated to carve his legacy in stone by helping Tunisia reach the knockout stages for the very first time.
Strengths
Tunisia will believe they have a central midfield to compete against anyone. Ellyes Skhiri, who plays for Cologne in the Bundesliga, is the epitome of consistency and will sit deep in Kadri’s midfield three. With his club, he almost always runs more than any of his team-mates or opponents and led the entire Bundesliga in distance covered during the 2020-21 season.
Aissa Laidouni will accompany Skhiri, but will be tasked less with covering full-backs and more with breaking up play in midfield. Over the last two years, the bearded destroyer has been one of the best players in the Hungarian league and will likely make the jump to a top-five European league after the World Cup.
Who Tunisia pick as a third midfielder will be match-specific. Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri, who is currently having a great season on loan to Birmingham City, could be an option, as is Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, who is one of the most complete prospects currently playing on the African continent.
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Weaknesses
It has been several years since Tunisia could rely on a consistent out-and-out striker. Prior to the 2018 World Cup, the Carthage Eagles experimented with former Sunderland winger Wahbi Khazri as a striker, and he’s deputised there ever since. Although he is a willing runner and his movement in the box is intelligent, Khazri lacks the physical tools to contest aerial duels or hold up play on his own.
Zamalek’s Seifeddine Jaziri, Odense BK’s Issam Jebali or Kuwait SC’s Taha Yassine Khenissi can be credible alternatives on the right occasions, but none have been good enough long enough to hold down that role.
Local knowledge
On the African continent, Tunisia is regarded as a smaller nation, with just 12 million people, few natural resources, a decrepit football infrastructure and no prolific academies. From an outsider’s perspective, there is no reason why they should be regarded as a footballing powerhouse, yet that is exactly what they are.
Tunisian clubs have long been competitive in the African inter-club competitions and the national team has qualified for every Africa Cup of Nations since 1994. This will be their sixth World Cup appearance. So how is it that Tunisia continue to outperform their socio-economic conditions? Their winning culture comes down to intangibles.
The Italian word for grit, “grinta”, is a word you will hear associated with Tunisian sides time and again. They enter duels a little more ferociously than others, complain to the match official a little harder, and shave a few extra seconds off of the clock as their goalkeeper recovers from cramp. It isn’t measurable strength, but it is their fuel.
Helping motivate them from the terraces might be a big bald man with red paint on his belly: Reda the Elephant, Tunisia’s superfan. Camera operators will seek him out if he is there along with other Tunisia fans — there is a Tunisian diaspora of about 30,000 in Qatar, so they might benefit from home-away-from-home support.
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Expectations back home
“If we don’t qualify to the knockout stages, I will consider that I have failed. If I am not ambitious, how can I expect my players to be?” Kadri declared on a Tunisian television show last month.
The posturing is transparent. Tunisia doesn’t just want to make up the numbers, and they will give it their utmost. Yet it is widely understood that it is an uphill battle for Tunisia to advance into the knockout stages from a group that has two European footballing powerhouses in Denmark and France.
Read more: See the rest of The Athletic’s World Cup 2022 squad guides
Read more: Denmark and Tunisia played to a scoreless draw in Group D opener.
(Main graphic — photo: Getty Images/design: Sam Richardson)