Tunisia vs France: Eagles of Carthage hope for shock upset

Tunisia will be hoping to spring what would be the biggest upset of the 2022 FIFA World Cup by beating France on Wednesday. With just one point from their first two games, the Eagles of Carthage are staring down the barrel of an early exit – unless if, of course, they can upset the odds and defeat the reigning World Cup champions in their final group stage game.

This competition has already seen some surprise results, namely Saudi Arabia coming from a goal down to beat Argentina and Morocco earning a well-deserved 2-0 win over Belgium. As such, Jalel Kadri’s men will need to take inspiration from their fellow Africans and hope to stage the same kind of result when they face France on Wednesday. They will also be hoping to avoid setting a rather unwanted precedent – exiting a World Cup without scoring a goal – but given that France have conceded in their last two matches, they just may be able to finally end their barren run.

It’s a rather disappointing turn of events for Tunisia, who came into this competition having picked up eight clean sheets in their last ten games. Yes, there was a heavy defeat to Brazil in a friendly match, but that was hardly of little surprise to most. To date, Tunisia have never gotten out of their group, and based on their results so far, it doesn’t look likely – but again, anything is possible, as we have seen so far at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Meanwhile, France are comfortably through to the round of 16 and will be simply looking to wrap up proceedings on a good note. Didier Deschamps is expected to ring the changes, but likely will not tinker too much with his squad as certainly they will aim to make it three wins out of three. Kylian Mbappe, who has three goals so far, will expect to feature in order to gain traction in his quest to win the Golden Boot. Still, with one eye on the knockout rounds, it is likely that while Mbappe could feature, he may be subbed off at some point in order to keep him fighting fit for the crunch stage that awaits the reigning champions.

France will likely take on either Poland or Argentina in the round of 16, although should Saudi Arabia spring another surprise result against Mexico and Robert Lewandowski is able to inspire Poland to beat Argentina, then Les Bleus would be taking on the Green Falcons in the next round. All in all, with Deschamps anticipated to mix things up to give some second-string players a chance to feature, France are expected to win this without much fuss, or at the very least, avoid a slip-up that would give Tunisia a slim chance of securing their first-ever berth in the round of 16.

It does appear that the loss to Australia last time out for Tunisia is what really doomed them; after drawing Denmark, who then went on to lose to France, Kadri’s side did have a great chance to put themselves in good position to qualify. However, it wasn’t meant to be, and now, they will have it all to do against a reigning champion that appears to be starting to stamp their authority on this competition.