Tunisia at World Cup 2026: can the Carthage Eagles finally escape the group?

Tunisia march into World Cup 2026 with the best qualifying record of any African nation — and the same old question hanging over them. The Carthage Eagles topped CAF Group H unbeaten, taking 28 points from a possible 30 and, remarkably, conceding not a single goal across the whole campaign. The ticket was punched on 8 September 2025, when Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane struck a 94th-minute winner away to Equatorial Guinea to make Tunisia the second African side to reach the finals, behind Morocco. It is their seventh appearance overall and a third in a row.

The catch is history. In all six previous trips — 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018 and 2022 — Tunisia have never once survived the group stage. The closest they came to glory was a famous final-day flourish in Qatar, where they beat reigning champions France 1-0 yet still went home early. Breaking that curse is now the whole project, and it falls to a new man on the touchline: Sabri Lamouchi was appointed in January 2026 after Sami Trabelsi — the coach who actually sealed qualification — was dismissed following a round-of-16 exit at the Africa Cup of Nations.

The draw was not kind. Group F pairs Tunisia with the Netherlands, Japan and Sweden — arguably the toughest assignment any CAF qualifier drew. Captain and midfield metronome Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt) anchors a side that mixes that defensive discipline with Premier League energy from Hannibal Mejbri and the back-line steel of Montassar Talbi, with veteran forward Youssef Msakni still in the picture. The blueprint is obvious: stay compact, concede little, and steal a result the way they did against France.

The path is narrow but real. In the 48-team format, the top two of each group plus the eight best third-placed sides reach the round of 32, so Tunisia do not need to win the group — a draw or two and a single win could be enough. Their schedule helps frame it: they open against Sweden on 14 June in Monterrey, meet Japan there on 20 June, then close against the Dutch in Kansas City on 25 June. The opener against a beatable Sweden looks like the swing game for any realistic knockout dream.

Let's be honest about the ceiling: our model files Tunisia firmly among the rank outsiders for the trophy itself, and this group makes even a top-two finish a steep climb. But the round of 32 is genuinely in play for a team this organised. See how the numbers stack up in our World Cup 2026 predictions, dig into the full profile on the Tunisia team page, then run your own Group F scenarios in the match simulator.