Morocco 1-2 Tunisia: Countering Carthage Eagles secure three points in 2012 Afcon opener

January 23rd, 2012 | by: Rami | Comments Off

It wasn’t pretty but our boys got their African Cup off to a winning start in Libreville on Monday against a technically impressive and offensively inefficient Atlas Lions team.

As predicted, starting four center backs in defense gave us no support on the wings and forced us to rely on moments of individual brilliance to create our chances. Thankfully, those moments came, primarily through Zouhaier Dhaouadi and Youssef Msakni.

On the other end of the pitch, goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi put in a man of the match display, denying Morocco several seemingly certain goals to continue what is becoming a tradition of Tunisian superiority in these Maghreb derbies. In short, it was a typically Tunisian counter attacking performance where we rode our luck and created it too.

One could say that Sami Trabelsi is fortunate that Korbi and Msakni’s goals bailed him out. If we had lost this game playing as we did, we’d be singing a much different tune. We allowed Morocco to take the initiative at almost every turn and they failed to punish us but the three points are ours and we can now prep for our match against Niger in relative peace.

I’m expecting several changes against the Mena on Friday. If I’m right in assuming that Khalil Chammam is only suspended for one match and not two, I’d like to see him return to the left back position so that we can apply more pressure on a Nigerien team that will be trying to copy our blueprint from today. Plus Ammar Jemal got a yellow today so it would make sense to save him for later in the tournament. Chances of Yassine Chikhaoui taking a seat in favor of Oussama Darragi seem much higher now too.

Finally the word from Gabon is that Saber Khelifa’s ankle is rather swollen right now and he might have to sit out. We’ll know more tomorrow when he gets it scanned to reveal the extent of the damage. Oh

Props to the boys on getting this vital win but we’re not through yet and there is much left to do. It’s nice to have the luxury to fine tune after a win rather than a loss though, especially at a tournament like a the Afcon.

Goals below, full highlights here