Wahbi Khazri, Ghaylene Chaalali & Youssef Msakni of TunisiaFETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images

Tunisia World Cup: How the Group G teams fared

Tunisia will feature in this summer's World Cup in Russia for the fifth time in their history, but have yet to make it out of the first round.

They qualified for three tournaments in succession, in 1998, 2002 and 2006.

The Carthage Eagles will be in group G with the likes of Belgium, England and Panama and their first game will be against England on June 18.

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They will next have to deal with Belgium on June 23 before closing their group matches with the clash against Panama on June 28.

Here's a guide on how Tunisia and their World Cup opponents fared during their recent international friendlies in preparation for the global showpiece.


Tunisia 1 v 0 Costa Rica


The on-loan Sunderland forward Wahbi Khazri highlighted his potential with a classy first-half goal to hand Tunisia a 1-0 win over Costa Rica in a friendly match held at the French Riviera on Tuesday.

The Tunisia skipper ran onto a ball played over his head from inside his own half, controlled it and swept past a defender before striking it against goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the 36th minute.

Khazri, 27, might not have set the Premier League alight with Sunderland last season, but he sent a clear message about his match-winning ability to England, as well as Belgium and Panama who will share Group G in Russia.

This is the second win for the Tunisians in a week, after they also beat Iran last Friday by the same scoreline. These two wins will be a huge boost for the North African giants who return to the World Cup after missing out in the past two editions.


England 1 v 1 Italy


Gareth Southgate's side will head into this tournament having hit a run of good form after their unbeaten qualification campaign. 

Having defeated Netherlands 1-0 on Friday, the Three Lions held on for a 1-1 draw against Italy on Tuesday.

Italy’s Lorenzo Insigne's 87th-minute spot-kick cancelled a first half Jamie Vardy opener in an entertaining game.

Vardy had put England ahead in the first half, emphatically firing past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma after Jesse Lingard's quick free-kick.

Italy were awarded a late penalty by referee Deniz Aytekin after he consulted with VAR and confirmed that debutant, Burnley defender James Tarkowski tangled with Federico Chiesa. Insigne made no mistake from the spot. 


Belgium 4 v 0 Saudi Arabia


Belgium will open up their World Cup campaign with a clash against Panama followed by Tunisia on June 23.

The game will be tough for both sides especially when you see how the teams are performing in their recent matches.

In the friendly match against Saudi Arabia, two goals from Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku helped Belgium to a 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

This is the only friendly game which Belgium played in the current Fifa calendar week. Lukaku found the bottom corner in the 13th minute then doubled the advantage six minutes before half time.

Substitute Michy Batshuayi showed neat footwork to fire in from close range before De Bruyne played a one-two with Lukaku and blasted in from further out.


Switzerland 6 v 0 Panama


Panama, who five days ago were beaten 1-0 by Denmark were thrashed 6-0 by Switzerland in their second friendly match.

The hosts had six different goalscorers against the Central Americans. Blerim Dzemaili, Granit Xhaka, Breel Embolo and Steven Zuber gave the Swiss a 4-0 half-time lead.

Substitutes Josip Drmic and Fabian Frei scored a further two goals to complete the rout in Lucerne.

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