FIFA World Cup 2022: Tunisia vs France 1-0 Report

Tunisia are out of the World Cup despite a spectacular victory over France.

Tunisia took advantage of a late VAR decision to secure a 1-0 victory over France at the World Cup, with the result not enough to secure a place in the round of 16.

A Wahbi Khazri goal gave Tunisia the lead but it looked like a famous victory would be negated by an Antoine Griezmann equalizer in the 98th minute.

However, after a few minutes, the VAR advised the referee to go to the monitor, which led the referee to interpret that Griezmann was active in an offside position before scoring after an unsuccessful deflection by a defender.

Despite the drama, Australia’s victory over Denmark meant Tunisia missed out on a place in the last 16 and finished third in Group D, while France progressed as winners.

After making big changes to his starting line-up, France coach Didier Deschamps saw his team start slowly and gave the initiative to a motivated Tunisian side to clinch an unexpected victory.

For the first quarter of an hour, the Africans thought they were ahead when Nader Ghandri confidently headed in a Khazri free-kick, but the midfielder went wide.

France failed to create anything significant until the 25th minute when Kingsley Coman raced into the box on a pass before putting the ball safely alongside the near post.

Despite this lead, Tunisia remained the best side by far and Khazri forced a solid Steve Mandanda save with a 25-yard volley.

The second half was just as lackluster as the first, but Education City Stadium erupted just before the hour mark, with Tunisia deservedly taking the lead.

After Youssouf Fofana was stripped in midfield, Khazri managed to get on target and past Raphael Varane before curling a shot past Mandanda from the edge of the penalty area.

With the other goalless game, Tunisia moved up to second in the group, but it took a few minutes for Australia to regain second place as they took the lead from Denmark.

Deschamps responded with a triple substitution that included the substitution of Kylian Mbappé and Tunisia didn’t need a second invitation to advance up the field to defend their slim lead.

However, the expected clean chances did not materialize as substitute Ousmane Dembele forced a sort of save from Aymen Dahmen with a long-range strike in the final 10 minutes.

Mbappé came back to life with two minutes remaining, cutting his right foot inside before firing off a brilliant Dahmen save as the ball appeared to go into the far corner.

Randal Kolo Muani went even closer, curling the ball 20 meters off the post with a slight deflection before Griezmann’s superb volley from 10 meters out was ruled out by a combination of technology and refereeing, creating mixed scenes in the game despite one of the biggest wins had to deal with the final feeling of disappointment in its history.