Tunisia’s World Cup preparations received a boost when they recovered from two goals down to secure a draw with European champions Portugal.
It looked like being a long night for Nabil Maâloul’s side when Andre Silva scored his country’s 1000th goal and then Joao Mario added a second after 34 minutes. Damage limitation was very much on the cards.
But then Esperance striker Anice Badri crucially reduced arrears just before the interval and then Fakhredine Ben Youssef hit a 64th minute equalizer.
It was quite the result for Tunisia who are without star forward Youssef Msakni who was ruled out of the World Cup after agonizingly suffering a cruciate ligament injury while playing his final league game of the season.
Portugal fielded a near full-strength side and were only really missing Cristiano Ronaldo, who was given an extended period off after playing in the Champions League final for Real Madrid. But Fernando Santos was still able to wheel out Pepe, Ricardo Quaresma, Adrien Silva, William Carvalho, Mario and Andre Silva and would have expected to win the game.
But that is now eight matches unbeaten for Tunisia and the last time they tasted defeat was in March last year. They conclude their World Cup warm-up schedule with a game against Turkey on Friday and a testing one against World Cup favorites Spain on June 8. They open their World Cup campaign against England on June 18 before games against Belgium and Panama.
