A gutsy Tunisian side caused one of the upsets of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar by beating defending champions, France, 1-0, but crashed out of the tournament courtesy of Australia’s win over Denmark.
France-born Wahbi Khazri scored the only goal of the game when he steered home a 58th-minute winner amid a cluster of defenders and the Carthage Eagles upset the World Cup holders at the Education City Stadium, but the shock victory was not enough for them to join the defending champions in the last 16 of the tournament.
Les Bleus manager Didier Deschamps had made nine changes for the match and fielded a second string team, quite different from the team that beat Denmark and had already booked their place in the knockout stages, and despite the loss to three North Africans, finished top of Group D on goal difference from runners-up Australia.
The introduction of Kilian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, Adrien Rabiot and Ousmane Dembelé in the second half, France could not break down the determined Tunisians and overturn the scoreline.
Griezmann did score a goal in the last minute of injury time but it was ruled out for offside after a VAR review, to hand Tunisia its third World Cup win in their history.
Roma manager, Jose Mourinho, has heaped praises on Nigerian forward, Victor Osimhen, after the striker scored a wonder goal which can potentially compete for the goal of the season in the Italian Serie A.
The former Chelsea boss said Osimhen, who is a target of one of his former clubs, Manchester United, can compare favourably with former Ivorian striker, Didier Drogba who terrorised defences in the English Premier League.
However, Mourinho said the only hindrance to the Napoli striker reaching legendary status is if he desists from “diving” to gain favours from referees.
“He is of the same level as Drogba, but Didier didn’t dive,” Mourinho told reporters after the game when asked to access the Super Eagles forward’s performance.
“If Victor changes, then OK. I’d buy him if I was at a club with a lot of money.”
“However, if he does go to England one day, he needs to change, because in Italy they put up with this sort of behaviour, whereas in the Premier League, they’d come down hard on him.”
“I told him that he scored a wonderful goal and needs to stop diving so much. His goal was fantastic, he did the same thing when we met earlier this season, so he’s a fantastic player. But he mustn’t dive,” the Portuguese coach said.
The red hot Osimhen, has scored 14 goals in 16 league matches, propelling Napoli to a healthy 13 point lead at the top of thr Serie A.
It was a night of shocks and history on Saturday at the ongoing African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria when one of the tournament’s favourites, Ghana, was knocked out by outsiders, Niger Republic in a 2-0 defeat which saw the Nigeriens qualify for the semi-finals.
As if the shock was not enough, first-time qualifiers, Madagascar, thumped Mozambique 3-1 to also qualify for the semi-final in some style.
While Madagascar was dealing with Mozambique in Constantine, Niger shocked two-time runners-up, Ghana, in Oran to complete the last-four line-up alongside host, Algeria and Senegal.
Niger’s reward is a date with Algeria while Madagascar will square up against Senegal, both on Tuesday.
Though Algeria and Senegal are outright favourites to win the tournament meant for African footballers playing in their country of birth, pundits believe underating the so called minnows could spell doom as Ghana, Cameroon, DR Congo and other top playing nations found out the hard way.
Madagascar had earlier shocked Ghana and hammered Sudan to win Group C, while Niger had pulled up the shock of the group stages by sending Cameroon packing with a 1-0 victory in their last group D match.