Before Wednesday's match Tunisia were considered one of the worst
teams in the tournament.
But after playing Russia in Kobe the North Africans have shown they are real
battlers who do not deserve their underdog status.
If luck had been on their side they would have come away with a point and
perhaps more, instead of 2-0 defeat.
But the team achieved what they had set out to do, which was simply to play
That simple goal exposes just how serious their six-month-long run of
terrible form had become.
However Tunisia at last produced a performance that showed they are worthy
of representing Africa at the World Cup.
Most impressive was the character shown by the team.
They fought for everything with the powerful Russians, and showed an
intelligence and creative flair that had been lacking for so long.
Mistakes let them down, with goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel giving the ball away
with a poor clearance throw which led to the first goal.
And an over-complicated move in midfield again gave possession away to the
fast Russian attack which made Tunisia pay dearly with the second.
Until that point, Tunisia had proved a match for the Russians.
Ziad Jaziri and Slim Ben Achour posed constant problems for the Russian
defence, with darting runs and some wonderful dribbling.
Tunisia had the ball in their opponents six yard box on over ten occasions,
but too often had no-one in the right place to make it count.
When the Tunisians did connect, the ball either went wide or hit one of the
They could have been ahead after 20 minutes, but the ball trickled agonizing
past the outside of the left post after Ben Achour capitalized on a
Later in the game Jaziri had what appeared a good penalty shout turned down.
The Russians played with the pace and solid precision for which they are
renowned, but their defence was troubled when the ball was worked around
If group rivals Belgium and Japan were counting on a guaranteed three points
against the North Africans, they now know that they are going to have a game
on their hands.