Tunisia national football team
Shirt badge/Association crest | |||
Nickname(s) | Les Aigles de Carthage (The Eagles of Carthage) | ||
---|---|---|---|
Association | Fédération Tunisienne de Football | ||
Confederation | CAF (Africa) | ||
Head coach | Roger Lemerre | ||
Captain | Riadh Bouazizi | ||
Most caps | Sadok Sassi "Attouga" | ||
Top scorer | Ezzedine Chakroun | ||
Home stadium | Stade 7 November | ||
FIFA code | TUN | ||
| |||
FIFA ranking | |||
Current | 47 | ||
Highest | 19 (February 1998) | ||
Lowest | 47 (November 2007) | ||
First international | |||
Tunisia 1 - 2 Algeria (Tunisia; 25 June, 1957) | |||
Biggest win | |||
Tunisia 7 - 0 Togo (Tunis, Tunisia; 7 January, 2000) Tunisia 7 - 0 Malawi (Tunis, Tunisia; 26 March, 2005) | |||
Biggest defeat | |||
Hungary 10 - 1 Tunisia (Hungary; 24 July, 1960) | |||
World Cup | |||
Appearances | 4 (first in 1978) | ||
Best result | Round 1, 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006 | ||
African Nations Cup | |||
Appearances | 12 (first in 1962) | ||
Best result | First place, 2004 | ||
Confederations Cup | |||
Appearances | 1 (first in 2005) | ||
Best result | 1st round, 2005 |
The Tunisia national football team (Template:Lang-ar), nicknamed Les Aigles de Carthage (The Eagles of Carthage), is the national team of Tunisia and is controlled by the Fédération Tunisienne de Football. They have qualified for four FIFA World Cups, the first one in 1978, but have yet to make it out of the first round. Nevertheless, they created history in that 1978 tournament in Argentina by becoming the first African side to win a World Cup match, beating Mexico 3-1. They also held defending champions West Germany to a goalless draw before bowing out. It took them 20 years to return to the finals but they have since qualified for the past three tournaments in succession, in 1998, 2002 and 2006. They were the only African team to appear at 2002 and 2006. 2002 qualifiers Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa were replaced by Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana and Togo who would all qualify for the first time. Tunisia were knocked out of the 2006 World Cup after coming third in their group after drawing with Saudi Arabia and suffering successive loses to Spain and Ukraine.
Tunisia also won the African Nations Cup in 2004, when they hosted the tournament.
World Cup record
- 1930 to 1958 - Did not enter
- 1962 - Did not qualify
- 1966 - Withdrew
- 1970 - Did not qualify
- 1974 - Did not qualify
- 1978 - Round 1
- 1982 to 1994 - Did not qualify
- 1998 - Round 1
- 2002 - Round 1
- 2006 - Round 1
African Nations Cup record
- 1957 - Did not enter
- 1959 - Did not enter
- 1962 - Third place
- 1963 - Round 1
- 1965 - Second place
- 1968 - Did not qualify
- 1970 to 1974 - Did not enter
- 1976 - Did not qualify
- 1978 - Fourth place
- 1980 - Withdrew
- 1982 - Round 1
- 1984 to 1992 - Did not qualify
- 1994 - Round 1
- 1996 - Second place
- 1998 - Quarterfinals
- 2000 - Fourth place
- 2002 - Round 1
- 2004 - Champions
- 2006 - Quarterfinals
- 2008 - Qualified
Famous and Retired Players
- Tarek Dhiab
- Sadok Sassi (Attouga)
- Hamadi Agerbi
- Mokhtar Dhouib
- Mohamed Ali Akid
- Tmim Hzemi
- Ali Kaabi
- Najib Ghommidh
- Mokhtar Naili
- Faouzi Rouissi
- Jameleddine Limam
- Chokri El Ouaer
- Nabil Maaloul
- Adel Sellimi
- Zoubier Baya
- Skander Souayah
- Tarek Thabet
- Hatem Trabelsi
- Mehdi Ben Slimane
- Imed Ben Younes
- Hassen Gabsi
- Raouf Bouzaiene
- José Clayton
- Khaled Badra
- Riadh Bouazizi
- Kaies Ghodhbane
2006 World Cup
At first many Tunisians criticized the coach for not putting in Selim Benachour who many considered the best player for the country who currently plays for Vitoria SC
Tunisia managed to draw their opening game against Saudi Arabia. They took the lead at half time thanks to Ziad Jaziri, but Tunisia didn't start well in the second half and Saudi Arabia equalized from Yasser Al-Qahtani. Substitute Sami Al-Jaber came on and scored with 4 minutes to go to put the Saudi's 2-1 up, but in added time Bolton defender Radhi Jaidi headed in an equalizer.
Tunisia lost their second match to Spain. Jaouhar Mnari put Tunisia in the lead with a goal in the eighth minute that kept them up until halftime. However, Spain came back in the second half scoring an equalizer that came from Raúl(72') and two additional goals from Fernando Torres(76', pen 90') that defeated Tunisia with a final score of 3-1.
Tunisia lost their last group match to Ukraine with a 1-0 defeat effectively ending their 2006 World Cup. Andriy Shevchenko(70') scored the only goal from a penalty kick.
Current Squad
External links
- Tunisia FA official site