A much-changed France fell 1-0 in the World Cup to an impressive Tunisia, whose victory was not enough to advance the defending champions from Group D.
Wahbi Khazri’s second-half goal, the North African team’s first of the tournament, was enough to secure victory, with France without continuity and control after Didier Deschamps named a starting eleven unconnected with qualification for the round of 16 already insured.
Tunisia started as the brighter of the two nations, taking advantage of the strange structure of the French team with nine new starters and a host of midfielders, and enlisting the support of passionate fans, with a large contingent of Tunisians traveling in Qatar whistling every french touch. .
It looked like they had an early goal to celebrate too, but Nader Ghandri was denied the offside flag after the defender volleyed inside the first 10 minutes.
With France desperately short of drive and direction forward, Deschamps was forced to field Kylian Mbappe, Adrien Rabiot and Antoine Griezmann, but the Tunisians held their ground.
There was drama at the end when Griezmann appeared to have fired in the last equalizer, but a late VAR check ruled the striker had been offside in the build-up, giving Tunisia a last-gasp respite and a famous win.
France top Group D and are joined in the round of 16 by Australia, who narrowly eliminated Denmark to deny Tunisia’s advance.
But for the 10 French-born players on the Tunisian team and the roughly 700,000 members of the North African nation’s diaspora in France, this was a particularly proud victory and courageous outing.
