Tunisia at the Africa Cup of Nations



Tunisia have participated in the Africa Cup of Nations 21 times, and hold the record for the highest number of consecutive participations, with sixteen between 1994 and 2023. Tunisia's first AFCON appearance was in 1962, where they took third place by defeating Uganda 3–0; only four countries participated in this edition. In the 1965 edition, Tunisia were allowed to host the competition and reached the final, losing to Ghana 2–3 after extra time.

In the 1996 edition, Tunisia reached the final for the second time, but were again defeated, this time by hosts South Africa 0–2. Tunisia's best result in the tournament would then come eight years later, when as hosts they reached the final for the third time and were finally victorious, defeating Morocco 2–1; Francileudo Santos and Ziad Jaziri scored the Tunisian goals. Tunisia's most recent participation was in the 2023 edition in the Ivory Coast, where the team was eliminated in the group stage.

In total, Tunisia have participated in the African Cup of Nations 21 times, playing 83 matches, with 25 wins, 30 draws and 28 losses, scoring 100 goals and conceding 97. The nation's biggest victories at the tournament were 4–0 wins against Ethiopia on 12 November 1965 and against Mauritania on 16 January 2022. Tunisia's biggest defeats were 3–0 losses against Cameroon on 10 February 2000, against Guinea on 30 January 2006, and against the Ivory Coast on 26 January 2013.

Francileudo Santos is the top-scoring Tunisian player at the tournament with ten total goals, while Youssef Msakni has appeared in a record 29 matches across eight tournaments between 2010 and 2023.

Matches

 * Notes

Third place match
1 The match was abandoned after Tunisia walked off in the 42nd minute with the score tied at 1–1 to protest the officiating. Nigeria were awarded a 2–0 win, and Tunisia were suspended for two years (also banning them from the next tournament).

2004 African Cup of Nations
As hosts, Tunisia did not have to qualify for the 2004 African Cup of Nations, where they face DR Congo, Rwanda and Guinea in the first round. The team won his opening match against Rwanda 2–1, thanks to goals from Ziad Jaziri and Francileudo Santos, despite the expulsion of Selim Benachour in the 60th minute with a red card. The second match against DR Congo is difficult until the Congolese Lomana LuaLua is sent off with a red card in the first half, after a frank attack on Jawhar Mnari. Thanks to Hatem Trabelsi on the right flank, the team managed to win the match 3–0 with a double from Dos Santos in the 55th and 87th minutes and a goal by Najeh Braham in the 65th minute. On the day of the third match, corresponding to eid al-Adha, 35,000 spectators came to the stadium. Guinea managed to snatch the equalizing point after the end of the game with the score at 1–1, Benachour scoring Tunisia's goal in the 58th minute, followed by a Guinean goal from Titi Camara in the last minutes of the match. Tunisia qualified for the quarter-finals on top of the group with seven points, after two wins and a draw.

In the quarter-finals, Senegal who had already beaten Lemerre as France coach 1–0 in the 2002 World Cup, faced him; Tunisia also won this game 1–0, with Mnari scoring in the second half after a scissor kick from Jaziri; this match is notorious for the appearance of fog on the pitch. In the semi-finals, Nigeria which had eliminated Cameroon. The match becomes very even until the end of playing time 1–1. The first goal was scored by Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha, who scored a penalty after Tunisian defender Karim Haggui beat Nwankwo Kanu in the penalty area. Fifteen minutes later, Nigerian defender Seyi Olofinjana broke Tunisian striker Jaziri in the penalty area, with whom Tunisia also received a penalty. The Tunisian captain Khaled Badra equalized the score 1–1. The match is finally decided in the penalty shootout, which Tunisia wins 5–3 thanks to Haggui who takes the last shot. With the victory. Tunisia reached the final, where they faced Morocco.

During the final, on 14 February 2004 at Stade 7 November in Radès in front of 70,000 supporters, Tunisia got off to a good start with a lead 1–0 after four minutes with Mehdi Nafti centered on Dos Santos, who scored his fourth goal of the tournament. At the end of the first half, Morocco came back to score with a goal from Youssouf Hadji on a lift from Youssef Mokhtari. Seven minutes passed in the second half before another Tunisian striker, Jaziri gave his country the lead. The match finally ends with the score of 2–1, giving Tunisia their first Africa Cup of Nations title. Khaled Badra and Riadh Bouazizi lifted the trophy after receiving it from President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Carthage Eagles are the 13th selection in history to be crowned African champions. Roger Lemerre also becomes the first coach to win two different continental tournaments after having previously won Euro 2000 with France. The national team also wins the African National Team of the Year award from the Confederation of African Football. The victory gave rise to the team's nickname, the "Eagles of Carthage" and as a result the team's badge was changed to incorporate an eagle.

Final

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2008 Africa Cup of Nations
Lemerre led Tunisia to qualify for the 2008 African Cup of Nations. In the qualification Tunisia faced Mauritius, Sudan, and Seychelles. After 4 wins and 1 draw, Tunisia suffered a 3–2 loss against Sudan and finished second in the qualifying round. Despite this, Tunisia were among the favorite teams to win the cup after its outstanding performance in recent years in addition to the presence of 7 players from Étoile du Sahel, champions of CAF Champions League, and Tunisia was able to qualify for the quarter-finals. Tunisia finished at the top of the group after a draw in the opening match against Senegal 2–2, a 3–1 victory over South Africa, In the third match, it faced Angola and the match ended 0–0. They lost against Cameroon 3–2 in extra time.

2010 Africa Cup of Nations
Tunisia failed to be in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. Four days later, the Tunisian Football Federation sacked coach Humberto Coelho and at the same time appointed Faouzi Benzarti as the new coach to oversee the national team in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. He was also eliminated after Tunisia were eliminated from the group stage, where all three matches were tied against Zambia, Gabon and Cameroon. Ending the session at the bottom of the group.

2019 Africa Cup of Nations
The start of the competition was poor after three draws in the group stage against Angola, Mali, and Mauritania to qualify for the Round 16 with great difficulty in second place. In the next round, the results improved by beating Ghana, and Madagascar 3–0 to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time in 15 years when Tunisia won the AFCON in 2004 before they narrowly lost to Senegal 1–0 in extra time after a referee dispute of Bamlak Tessema because of not giving a clear penalty to Tunisia 4 minutes before the end of the game to complete the competition in fourth place behind Nigeria. Nonetheless, it stands as the best performance of Tunisia since winning 2004 AFCON at home.

2021 Africa Cup of Nations
The team's participation in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations was rather bad. In the group stage, it began with a 0–1 defeat from Mali during the match, which witnessed strange refereeing events, as Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe ended the match in the 85th minute. In the second match, the team achieved a moral victory over Mauritania 4–0 thanks to the double of Wahbi Khazri and the goals of Hamza Mathlouthi and Seifeddine Jaziri, but the team was afflicted by a 0–1 defeat against Gambia in the last moments of the match, to qualify for the round of 16 as the best third in the group stage.

Nevertheless, the team defeated strong Nigeria 1–0 with the goal of Youssef Msakni from outside the penalty area, despite the absence of Mondher Kebaier from the match due to his infection with the COVID-19 virus, and he was replaced by his assistant Jalel Kadri. In the end, the team was eliminated from the quarter–finals against Burkina Faso after a 0–1 defeat.

Head to head



 * 1 Includes games against

Goalscorers

 * Hat-tricks

Awards

 * Top Scorer


 * 2004: Francileudo Santos (4 goals)
 * 2015: Ahmed Akaïchi (3 goals)


 * Goal of the tournament


 * 2013: Youssef Msakni (vs. Algeria; Group D)


 * Team of the Tournament


 * 1978: Mokhtar Dhouib
 * 1996: Chokri El Ouaer, Zoubeir Baya
 * 1998: Hassen Gabsi
 * 2000: Khaled Badra
 * 2004: Khaled Badra, Riadh Bouazizi
 * 2008: Saber Ben Frej
 * 2012: Youssef Msakni
 * 2019: Yassine Meriah


 * Man of the match
 * 2013: Youssef Msakni (vs. Algeria; Group D)
 * 2017: Youssef Msakni (vs. Algeria; Group B)
 * 2017: Taha Yassine Khenissi (vs. Zimbabwe; Group B)
 * 2019: Wahbi Khazri (vs. Angola; Group E)
 * 2019: Ferjani Sassi (vs. Madagascar; Quarter-final)
 * 2021: Wahbi Khazri (vs. Mauritania; Group F)
 * 2021: Youssef Msakni (vs. Nigeria; Round of 16)

Controversies
Wadie Jary, the president of the Tunisian Football Federation, claimed that there was a bias against Tunisia following their controversial quarter-final defeat to Equatorial Guinea on 31 January 2015. He was banned from CAF competitions and activities. Rajindraparsad Seechurn, the Mauritian referee who gave a penalty to Equatorial Guinea in that match, was banned from officiating for six months and removed from CAF's elite register of referees. The Tunisian FA was fined $50,000 for confronting the referee during the match, in addition to damage to changing room facilities, while Equatorial Guinea was fined $5,000 for inadequate security at the stadium.
 * Tunisia vs. Equatorial Guinea refereeing at 2015 Afcon

The match between Tunisia and Mali, the first meeting of Group F, was not played to completion. Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe initially whistled the end of the match in the 86th minute before changing his mind, warned by his assistant referee and the protests of the Tunisian players. He then signaled the end of the game in the 90th minute, seconds from the end of regulation time, just as the assistant referee was about to announce added time. In front of the furious Tunisians, the refereeing quartet had to leave the field under police escort.
 * Tunisia vs. Mali refereeing at 2021 Afcon

Given the extent of the controversy, the resumption of the match, to play the remaining additional time, was announced. However, the Tunisian team refused to resume the match, claiming that the players were already in the showers, or out of the stadium, therefore unfit to resume the game. The Malians having presented themselves on the lawn, the end of the match is whistled with only one team on the ground, the result of 1–0 being ratified later by CAF.

Later, it was reported by different media that the referee Janny Sikazwe had in fact suffered a sunstroke in the middle of the game, so much so that he was even taken to the hospital, from where the presence of the fourth referee on the pitch at the time of the attempt to restart the match. According to the Tunisian player Wahbi Khazri, the referee of the match "was no longer coherent", "the referee lost the thread of the match" specified the Tunisian captain. "He was no longer consistent in his choices and decisions. He was very hot."