The memory of the African Nations Cup preserves many exciting and distinguished events that included Tunisia’s participation in the finals, which numbered 20 after the first appearance of the Carthage Eagles in the third edition hosted by Ethiopia in 1962.
Over 60 years of continental participation, Tunisia’s national team’s tally ranged between remarkable achievements, bitter disappointments, records and mediocre participations, but the Carthage Eagles were able to write Tunisia’s name in the golden record of the competition at least once, when they won the title in the 2004 session.
Three years after the establishment of the Tunisian Football Association on March 27, 1957, the Carthage Eagles team registered its presence in the “Al-Kan” forum for the first time in Ethiopia (1962), which witnessed the participation of four teams before Tunisia finished the competition in third place after defeat in The first match was against Ethiopia (2-4), then the match was won over Uganda (3-0).
In 1965, the Confederation of African Football granted Tunisia the honor of organizing the fifth edition of the finals, which saw the teams of Tunisia and Ghana reach the final, but the owners of the land failed to take advantage of the privilege of the host country and lost the final to the “Black Stars” (3-2).
The Tunisian national team has been away from the African football front for a long time, as it missed the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1976 sessions, before appearing again in the 1978 edition, the year in which the Carthage Eagles qualified for the World Cup Finals (Argentina).
In that edition of the African Nations, Tunisia reached the semi-finals and lost to Ghana, the host country at the time, with a goal without a response, but the surprise occurred in the ranking match when the Tunisian players withdrew from their match against Nigeria in the 42nd minute, when the result was tied (1-1).
The Tunisian players protested the equalizer scored by the Nigeria team and left the field, so the referee decided to stop the match before the African Union took a penalty against Tunisia by banning it from participating in the 1980 pro version.
Disappointment, then a historic crowning
The Tunisian national team returned to participate in the “CAN 1982” after fulfilling the penalty, as it finished the competition hosted by Libya in seventh place, then again failed to reach the finals in the 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992 sessions.
In March 1994, Tunisia hosted the 19th edition of the African Nations Cup, on which the Tunisian fans pinned occasional hopes, but it was bitterly disappointed after the resounding exclusion since the first round and the failure to achieve any victory, a precedent that no host team knew in the history of the finals.
The exit of the Carthage Eagles at the time from the small door of the Kahn was a setback for Tunisian football, but after only two years they were able to prove themselves strongly in the finals of South Africa and made very remarkable performances and reached the final of the competition before losing the title in the last meters to South Africa (0-2).
And about that historic participation, the former Tunisian national team defender, Farid Shoshan, considered that reaching the final round was the greatest achievement in the history of Tunisian football until that time.
Shoshan said in statements to Sky News Arabia: “The 1996 session witnessed the participation of the top African continent, such as Cameroon, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Algeria. He beat us with great difficulty, taking advantage of the ground workers and the public.”
In the 2000 tournament in Nigeria and Ghana, the Tunisian team reached the semi-finals before losing to Cameroon (0-3), but the greatest achievement in the history of Tunisian football was in the 2004 finals, which Tunisia also hosted, when the Carthage Eagles won the first continental title in the history of Tunisia, which came after Ten previous posts.
The Tunisian team won the title after winning the final of the competition over its Moroccan counterpart (2-1), after it removed from it in the previous rounds the teams of Guinea, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Nigeria.
Former Tunisian national team star Anis Ayari believes that the Carthage Eagles benefited greatly from the support of the fans throughout the stages of that tournament to win the first continental title in Tunisia’s history.
In a statement to Sky News Arabia, Al-Ayari, who was one of the makers of Tunisia’s crowning title in the 2004 edition, said: “We do not deny the football value of most of the players of that generation, which is a pride for Tunisian football, but we must also admit that we were lucky and that the public stood as a strong support for us, that team He was able to carve the name of Tunisia in golden letters in the history of “Al-Kan” on his merits.
He adds regarding Tunisia’s participation in the 2022 finals: “The Carthage Eagles have chances to play the first roles, but the road to the title is long and arduous. Tunisia can reach the semi-finals, and this is a legitimate ambition despite the presence of very big teams such as Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Morocco.”
Since the completion of 2004, Tunisia has not achieved remarkable results in the African Nations, as it withdrew from the first round in the 2013 finals, the quarter-finals in 2008, 2010, 2015, 2017, and the semi-finals in the last edition 2019.
But despite that, the Tunisian team succeeded in achieving an unprecedented record in the history of the “Cannes” by qualifying for the finals for the 15th time in a row (between 1994 and 2021), which no other team in Africa has achieved.
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