Tunisia arrived in North America with a reputation built on defensive resilience. They had navigated World Cup qualifying without conceding a single goal, becoming only the second nation in history to achieve the feat, and were hoping that same discipline would underpin a first run to the knockout stages.
But against stronger opposition, old limitations quickly resurfaced. A shaky start, costly individual errors and a familiar lack of firepower proved decisive as Sweden exposed the gulf between dominating African qualifying and competing on the biggest stage.
Along with Ivory Coast, Tunisia became the first team in history to qualify for a World Cup without conceding. But with all due respect to Namibia, Liberia, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tome and Príncipe, Tunisia were always going to maintain that record against better opposition in North America.
Head coach Sabri Lamouchi had touted his team’s rearguard as its strength, but their defence was breached with only six minutes registered on the clock at Monterrey Stadium, Mexico.
Goalkeeper Mouhib Chamakh came for a ball over the top but his attempt to pat the ball over the onrushing Alexander Isak always looked a risky strategy. And so it proved. The ball fell to Victor Gyokeres on the edge of the box but the Arsenal striker saw his effort blocked. But there was no stopping Yasin Ayari’s effort, who thundered in an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
Just before the half-hour mark, Tunisia were two down. A rare foray forward saw the Tunisians lose the ball high up the pitch with the defence exposed. The ball was quickly worked to Isak wide on the left and the Liverpool striker, who endured an injury-plagued season after his British transfer record move to Liverpool, cut inside and unleashed a low drive that Chamakh got a hand to and probably should have kept out.
From there on, getting back into the game looked a tall order for a team that lack a cutting edge and a genuine goalscorer.
The North Africans scored 22 goals in World Cup qualifying with goals evenly spread out among the squad. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane top-scored with four and Elias Saad with three. Romdhane wasn’t selected for these finals and in the sapping conditions of Monterrey, Saad melted.
Ali Abdi, nominally a defender, is the highest scoring player in Lamouchi’s squad with seven goals. He was pressed into action further up the field as a winger but in the rare instances Tunisia were able to exert any sort of control, they were reduced to hopeful long balls trying to release him behind Gustaf Lagerbielke.
Tunisia were thrown a lifeline just before the break though. Perhaps it was little surprise that it was a defender that came up with it.
Hannibal Mejbri, the team’s creative fulcrum, had spent most of the first 45 minutes as part of a rigid first line of defence, but the Tunisia No 10 delivered an exquisite cross and Omar Rekik leapt to guide in a perfect header past Kristoffer Nordfeldt in Sweden’s goal.
Under Graham Potter, Sweden had gone 12 games without a clean sheet heading into this World Cup. Suddenly, they looked vulnerable.
A combination of the goal and the break seemed to temporarily invigorate Tunisia. Hannibal tried to catch Kristoffer out with a delicate chip towards goal as he shaped to cross. A free kick soon afterwards was ballooned over, but it signalled a shift in impetus by the Tunisians.
But no sooner had it started, it ended. Quite what Ellyes Skhiri was thinking trying to dribble past Isak yards from goal is anyone’s guess, but it resulted in the Tunisia captain being dispossessed and the loose ball falling invitingly for Gyokeres to place his shot beyond Chamakh to restore Sweden’s two-goal advantage.
Mattias Svanberg had the ball in the net for a fourth Sweden goal. The substitute had only been on the pitch all of 12 seconds and was offside from the original ball in. However, after a VAR review, Isak was judged to have touched the ball, by which time Svanberg had got himself onside, and the goal stood. It felt harsh on Tunisia.
It was the first time Sweden, had scored four goals in a World Cup match since they beat Bulgaria in the third-place play-off at USA ’94. For Svanberg, it was the fastest goal scored by a substitute at a global finals.
To cap a miserable night in Mexico, Ayari scored Sweden's fifth deep into injury time. Again, a Tunisia player was guilty of holding on to the ball too long in a dangerous area. Lucas Bergval won it back for Ayari to take aim and power home a goal that was arguably even better than his first.
The Eagles of Carthage picked up a respectable four points at the last World Cup in Qatar, despite having one of the lesser-known squads at the tournament. They beat eventual runners-up France in their final group game, but failed to make it out of the group for a second successive tournament. In fact, Tunisia have never played a knockout match at any World Cup.
The job doesn’t get any easier for Lamouchi’s squad, with assignments against Japan and the Netherlands to come. Unless they can address their mistakes of Monterrey, they won’t be playing any knockout matches in North America either.
