Tunisia vs France: Tunisia's World Cup hopes hang in the balance

Topics: TV Schedules, TV Listings, Tunisia, France, 2022 FIFA World Cup

The reigning champs will likely rest quite a few players and that's something Tunisia will hope to exploit as they still have a faint glimmer of hope at getting through.

With just one point from their first two games, Tunisia are on the brink of an early World Cup exit. It's a rather disappointing outcome for the African nation, who came into this competition on a solid run of form that had seen them pick up eight clean sheets in their last ten matches before arriving in Qatar. The Eagles of Carthage kicked off their 2022 World Cup by successfully holding Denmark, a team many had picked as dark horses to a draw, but unfortunately were beaten 1-0 by Australia last time out and now will have to pull off a shock upset against France to keep their qualification hopes alive.

Of course, this tournament has already seen some major upsets, namely Saudi Arabia coming from a goal behind to beat Argentina 2-1 on matchday one as well as Morocco earning a deserved 2-0 win over Belgium. In Tunisia's case, the odds don't look good. Even if they do manage to beat the reigning World Cup winners, who have already qualified for the round of 16, a positive result for Australia against Denmark will see all their hard work reduced to a moot point. At the moment, Jalel Kadri's men will need to do something they were not able to do in their prior two matches - to find the back of the net.

To date, Tunisia have never gone through a World Cup campaign sans scoring a goal, and they may take some respite that France, despite winning their matches against Australia and Denmark, have not been able to keep a clean sheet so far in this competition. That being said, the Eagles of Carthage have never been able to get out of the group stages at a World Cup, and with just one point from their first two games, they will really be facing not just an uphill battle, but will also need some luck to go their way from the Australia-Denmark clash being played simultaneously on Tuesday.

As for France, a brace from Kylian Mbappe was enough to give Didier Deschamps's men a 2-1 win over Denmark and secure their place in the round of 16 with a match to spare. France had lost twice to Denmark earlier this year, and were determined not to allow the Scandinavian side to triumph for a third time in a row. With their opponents set to be decided after Tuesday's matches, Deschamps is likely to ring the changes for this game in order to give some fringe players some game time while keeping all his key personnel fighting fit for the knockout rounds.

Team news: Tunisia vs France

Tunisia: Tunisia have a full-strength squad ahead of this game.

France: Shot-stopper Alphonse Areola is a slight doubt due to a back injury, while Lucas Hernandez has been ruled out for the rest of the competition following a cruciate ligament injury during France's 4-1 win over Australia. Other from that, Deschamps has a full-strength squad available, and as noted before, is likely to rotate his starting XI for this game.

Match stats: Tunisia vs France

France have won their last six World Cup matches - which is their longest run in this competition
Tunisia have yet to score so far at this World Cup and will be hoping to avoid going all three group stages sans a goal for the first time in national history
The Eagles of Carthage have kept just two clean sheets in their last 17 World Cup games