The final match on Thursday in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will see Tunisia taking on Madagascar at Stade Olympique Hammadi-Agrebi in Rades.
These two sides have been drawn into group A of this competition which also features the Comoros and Gambia, who face off in Morocco on Wednesday evening.
Match preview
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Tunisia will begin their road to redemption this week after they were dumped out in the group stage of the previous edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast at the start of the year.
The Carthage Eagles were drawn alongside Mali, South Africa and Namibia in the previous competition and failed to win any of their matches, drawing two after a shocking opening match defeat to Namibia.
Since then, the North Africans have posted a mixed bag of results, drawing goalless in back-to-back friendlies against Croatia and New Zealand in March, while they beat Equatorial Guinea 1-0 and played out a 0-0 stalemate against the Brave Warriors in their World Cup qualifiers in June.
Following the most recent goalless draw with Namibia, the Tunisian Football Association brought Faouzi Benzarti to lead the side to continental glory, and the former Club Africain and Wydad manager will be featuring in his first match in charge of the Carthage Eagles this week.
Tunisia have a rich history in this competition, qualifying for the main event over 20 times in their history, although they have not won the title in two decades despite reaching the quarter-final in seven of their last 10 attempts.
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Meanwhile, Madagascar will see this match as a chance to exact revenge, as it was this very opponent that knocked them out of the only Africa Cup of Nations main tournament they ever qualified for in their history back in 2018-19.
Since then, Barea have failed to make much of an impact in qualifying, with the last edition ending with the side failing to win any of their six group-stage matches, drawing three and losing three.
However, Barea have been in decent form lately, currently in third place in Group I of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with seven points after four games, two points behind Ghana and the Comoros.
Romuald Rakotondrabe's side are unbeaten in their last three competitive matches, including victories over Chad and the Comoros, while drawing 0-0 at home to Mali in the middle of June.
Team News
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Benzarti has introduced several new players to the Tunisian squad for these qualifiers, including Houssem Ben Ali from ES Sahel, Raed Bouchniba from Esperance and Bilel Mejri from Stade Tunisien.
Al-Gharafa's Ferjani Sassi returns to the national team after a period of absence, while arguably the most notable omission from the squad for these two matches is that of Shakhtar Donetsk's Alaa Ghram.
Rakotondrabe has also added a few new faces to Madagascar's lineup, including Ryan Ponti from French third division outfit US Orleans and Nicolas Fontaine, who applies his trade in the Belgian second division with La Louvriere.
Lokomotiv Plovdiv midfielder Johan N'zi and Swift Hesperange shot-stopper Geordan Dupire have also been called up for this month's qualifiers, while Hakim Abdallah is likely to be the main man in attack for Barea.
Tunisia possible starting lineup:
Said; Valery, Talbi, Abdi, Ali; Skhiri, Mahmoud, Sassi; Saad, Jaziri, Youssef
Madagascar possible starting lineup:
Dupire; Boto, Fortun, Rabemanantsoa, Tremoulet; Amada, Raveloson, N'zi; Caddy, Lapoussin; Abdallah
We say: Tunisia 1-0 Madagascar
While Tunisia have performed well below expectation in the last 18 to 24 months, there is no denying the quality in their squad and a new manager at the helm may be exactly what was needed to reignite the fire beneath them. We are going for a narrow win for the hosts in this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
