Tunisia defeat France, crash out of World Cup

Tunisia, on Wednesday, defeated Group D winners France 1-0 but it wasn’t enough to qualify in a dramatic match that saw Antoine Griezmann’s goal ruled out by a late VAR review.

Wahbi Khazri scored the decisive goal in the 58th minute with a fantastic solo run as Tunisia took full advantage of Didier Deschamps making nine changes to his France side and resting Kylian Mbappe.

France only started to put pressure on in the latter stages when Mbappe was substituted on and they thought they had levelled it up when Griezmann fired home but an eventual VAR review spotted he was offside in the build-up.

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With Australia beating Denmark to finish on six points, it meant Tunisia, who finished third, crashed out in strange fashion having taken four points off France and Denmark.

France are set to play the runners-up in Group C on Sunday with a potential meeting with England in the quarter-finals if they win their last-16 game.

France were beaten in a World Cup match for the first time since the 2014 quarter-final (0-1 vs Germany), ending a run of nine games without defeat (W8 D1).

They have now gone without a win in their final group match in each of the last four World Cup tournaments (D2 L2) while failing to score in the last three.

Tunisia only conceded one goal in their three games at the 2022 World Cup; the joint-fewest by an African team across a full group stage in the tournament, along with Cameroon in 1982 and Morocco in 1986.

The Star