Tunisia secures qualification for FIFA World Cup after dramatic win
Tunisia has become the second team from the African continent to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup according to Africanews on September 9th.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, who plays for Egyptian side Al Ahly, scored the dramatic winning goal in injury time to secure a 1-0 over Equatorial Guinea.
The victorious away side snatched it late on after Romdhane was teed up by fellow substitute Firas Chaouat, provoking wild celebrations from the visiting team.
With three games remaining before facing Equatorial Guinea, the Eagles of Carthage knew a win would secure qualification for next year’s World Cup with two games to spare.
After the win, Tunisia top Group H with 22 points from eight games, with Namibia trailing 10 points behind in second place. Remarkably, Tunisia have yet to concede a goal in qualifying.
Victory against Equatorial Guinea means that Tunisia have qualified for their third World Cup in a row, and seventh in total. They will be hoping that their strong qualification campaign bodes well for them to qualify from the group stages of the World Cup next year, after failing to do so in 2018 and 2022.
Despite a seamless qualification campaign, Tunisian football has experienced upheaval behind the scenes, with the former president of the Tunisian Football Federation Wadie Jary being sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges.
Furthermore, there has been managerial instability throughout the qualification campaign, with current manager Sami Trabelsi being brought in midway through qualification after previous manager Faouzi Benzarti was sacked in October 2024.
Elsewhere, fellow northern African giants Algeria were held to a goalless draw away to Guinea, remaining top of Group G with 19 points, but Uganda applying the pressure behind on 16 points after their 2-0 win against Somalia.
Ghana boosted their chances of qualifying automatically as group winner by beating challengers Mali 1-0 in Accra, with many of the African giants recovering from a slow start to qualification to put themselves in the driving seat for the World Cup.
Africanews, Maghrebi.org, CAF online
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