Senegal have a talent laden squad, but were pushed all the way by a pretty poor Benin in the quarter finals and are a team who do not handle adversity or pressure all that well, that match might well have played out differently had The Squirrels taken the lead as they so nearly did, following an error by The Teranga lions keeper and they looked uncomfortable at times until taking that 70th minute lead.Benin were well set up and we know how well organised this Tunisa side can be and as I said before their own quarter final............... "I am starting to feel a little about Tunisia as I did with Portugal when they won the Euros, they are finding it difficult to win (in fact they haven’t so far, four draws), but have trailed for only 10 minutes at these championships and are tough to beat , also , that there is more to come." They beat another minnow in Madagascar , but did so 3-0 and the high pressing hard working style of the Tunisians dominated.  Ferjani Sassi , whom I have discussed a couple of times at these championships and who plays his club football in Egypt, now appears fully fit and was very influential, looking the player I hoped he might be. Head coach Alain Giresse said afterwards: " We're satisfied with our performance. We are in the semifinal and it's what the Tunisians were looking for, yet this is not our ambition. We want to do more. "

 

There is plenty of background information on The Eagles of Carthage in my pre tournament notes, all I really want to add is that I suspect Senegal will be the more nervous of the two and this will increase, the longer this game goes without them leading and Tunisia are a very difficult team to "play through". The Senegalese have struggled in such situations before and lost to another North African team (Algeria) already here and started ultra cautiously in that and I would not be surprised to see them do likewise today and that hardly plays to their strengths, especially mentally. Also, Tunisia have dominated h2h meetings, losing just 1/12 ( 8 wins) and keeping 8 clean sheets and odds are good quotes of 3.0  + off level ball look too good to swerve.