With perfect run and clean sheet, Tunisia secure 2023 AFCON place

Tunisia became the latest among the seven teams to confirm their place in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations after a 1-0 victory over Libya in Benghazi on Tuesday night.

The six other qualifiers include the host country, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Senegal and Burkina Faso.

Tunisia’s victory over Libya moved them to 10 points top of Group J, one ahead of second placed Equatorial Guinea and seven ahead of the Libyans with two rounds of matches left.

Tunisia achieved their qualification on an unbeaten record and without conceding a goal, a statistic that excited head coach Jalel Kadri.

“We secured qualification to the African Cup of Nations, and Tunisia is the only team in the qualifiers that did not concede any goal so far.

“Accordingly it confirmed our technical value of our defence, and a great work awaits us in the attack to score,” the tactician said.

He was also delighted with the performance of his side against a tough Libya side at their backyard in Benghazi.

“We achieved a difficult victory, in a difficult stadium and against a difficult opponent. We did not let the opponent take the initiative and we controlled the course of the match. I thank the players and their experience decided the outcome of the match,” the tactician added.

While Tunisia have earned a place in the final tournament, Libya will have an outside chance to qualify, but that is dependent on whether Equatorial Guinea will lose both their matches in June.

Assistant coach, Idriss Murabit, said his side can take pride in the performance against Tunisia moving forward.

“We did not deserve defeat against Tunisia, and our players did what they had to do and they are affected by the loss. There was a clear improvement in the match, but luck was not on our side, especially since we created chances to score,” he said.

Haythem Jouini scored the lone goal for Tunisia in the 16th minute, powering home a header from Ali Maaloul’s corner.

Libya had chances to score, but they were not calm and relaxed infront of goal, seeing many chances go begging.

Their keeper Muad Allafi made two good saves in the dying minutes of the match to deny substitute Seifeddine Jaziri.

Mauritania 1-1 DR Congo

Elsewhere in Nouakchott, 10-man DR Congo held on for a point away from home as they played to a 1-1 draw with hosts Mauritania.

The result leaves Group I wide open with only three points separating leaders Gabon (7) and bottom side Congo (4) with two rounds of matches left.

Mauritania are third in the group with five points and there will be all to play for heading to the final cluster of fixtures in June.

“We lacked accuracy in the first half but the difficulty of this match will help us grow. We will do everything to win the two matches in June to qualify,” said Mauritania captain Aly Abeid after the match.

Meanwhile, DR Congo head coach Sebastian Desabre was left ruing missed chsnces.

“We should have scored more goals in the first 30 minutes given the chances we created. We faced a very brave Mauritanian side that did not stop pushing. This is now over and we focus on the next assignments. The match against Gabon will be very decisive and our target is to get to 10 points, and this is by winning both remaining games,” said the Frenchman.

-Caf