On Monday night, Tunisia and England go head-to-head in Group G of the World Cup, as both teams look to kick-off their campaign with a victory.
Tunisia finished qualifying with an eight-game unbeaten run in which the North African team picked up six victories. They were solid in defence in the final qualifying group, conceding just four times in six outings.
The Eagles of Carthage will be participating at their fifth World Cup this summer. However, they have never made it past the group stage. They were, however, the first African team to record a victory at a World Cup by beating Mexico 3-1 back in 1978.
Their recent results have been mixed as the North African side faced some difficult games against the likes of Portugal and Spain. A 1-0 defeat at the hands of the latter is their only defeat in ten international games.
England are perennial qualifiers for the World Cup, as the Three Lions have now played at eight of the last nine finals. However, they have struggled to reach the latter stages of the competition, not making the quarter-final in the last two editions.
There have been promising signs from the Three Lions, as Gareth Southgate’s team won eight of their ten qualifiers while remaining unbeaten. However, England has a habit of doing well in qualifying for major tournaments only to struggle at finals.
The Three Lions recent results have been decent, as they head into this summer’s World Cup unbeaten in ten games. Successive wins over Nigeria and Costa Rica send them into this summer’s competition in good spirits.
England’s recent outings have been low scoring, with seven of their last eight games producing under 2.5 goals.
England recorded a victory in the only World Cup clash between these two teams back in 1998. They will be confident of another win in this clash.
Forebet predicts that England will record a victory in a low scoring game to kick-off their campaign.