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Facts ahead of Tunisia v Mauritania AFCON clash this Sunday

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As both meet this afternoon in Limbe, they are aware that there is no room for error. Both Tunisia and Mauritania lost their opening matches, 1-0 to Mali and The Gambia respectively.

  • This is Tunisia’s 77th Africa Cup of Nations match since upstaging Nigeria to make a maiden appearance at the 1962 edition.
  • This is Mauritania’s fifth match in Africa Cup of Nations’ history.  
  • Tunisia are ranked number 30 in the world in the current FIFA ranking .
  • Mauritania are number 103 ranked in the December ranking released by FIFA.
  • Tunisia and Mauritania’s only previous encounter in the Africa Cup of Nations produced a goalless draw – it was in the group phase of the 2019 tournament.
  • Tunisia have lost three consecutive matches at the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since March 1994. They lost their semi-final match to Senegal in 2019 as well as the bronze medal match to Nigeria in the same edition. Those two losses are followed up with the 1-0 loss to Mali in the current tournament.  However, Tunisia have never lost four in a row in their history in the competition.
  •  Mauritania are still searching for their first ever win at the Africa Cup of Nations, failing to do so in their four matches to date (Draw 2;  Lost 2), while they haven’t scored a single goal in their last three games in the competition.
  • Tunisia are winless in their last four group stage games at the Africa Cup of Nations (Draw 3;  Lost 1), their longest such run without a victory since January 1996 (eight games, Draw 4;  Lost 4).
  • Tunisia have missed their last two penalties taken in the Africa Cup of Nations, coming into the second round of matches only Ghana (10) have taken more in the competition since 2010 than the Eagles of Carthage (7), while no team has failed to score more than Tunisia in this time (3, level with Senegal).

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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