By Peter Mwaura
On June 25th 1978, Tunisia national football team participated in the FIFA World Cup for the first time, this being 18 years after gaining affiliation to world football governing body FIFA.
Under coach Abdelmajid Chetali, Tunisia made an immediate impact, coming from behind to thrash Mexico 3-1 in 1978 world cup to enter historic books as the first African country to win a world cup match.
A few days later, the team held reigning champions West Germany to a 0-0 draw at the Estadio Córdoba. Despite the Carthage Eagles losing the final match 1-0 against Poland, this was the perfect start that any team would wish for in their debut.
Tunisia will be participating for a fifth time in the W.C
On 11th November 2017, Tunisia recorded a goalless draw against Libya to add their point tally to 14, one more than DR Congo in group A. This 1 point was enough to award Tunisia a direct ticket to the 21st edition of the FIFA world cup in Russia.
This being their fifth time to participate in the global showpiece, Tunisia led by coach Nabil Maaloul will be keen to replicate the performance of the golden team of 1978 in their quest to qualify past the first round for the first time.
Tunisia recorded a consistent record of qualifying for three consecutive world cups between 1998 and 2006 before failing to qualify for the 2010 and 2014 editions that were staged in South Africa and Brazil respectively.
The North Africans will be counting on Oussama Haddadi of Ligue 1 side Dijon, Yohan Benalouane of Leicester city and Dylan Bronn of KAA Gent, to provide a solid Defence line that will provide goalkeeper Aymen Mathlothi with the perfect cover.
27 year old Rennes midfielder Wahbi Khazri, Bassern Srarfi of nice, Ellyes Skhiri of Montpellier and experienced Ferjani Sassi will be some of the dependable midfielder for the Tunisian team.
Al Duhail forward Youssef Msakni will be hoping to increase his goal tally with the national team when he leads the striking forces against their group g opponents.
Tunisia will play in group g, fifa world cup
Tunisia will face England in their first group g match on 18th June, before taking on Belgium on 23rd June .coach Nabil Maaloul charges will face panama in their final group g match on 28th June.