# Egypt–Tunisia football rivalry

The Egypt−Tunisia football rivalry is a football rivalry between the national football teams of Egypt and Tunisia, having achieved eight Africa Cup of Nations, one African Nations Championship and two FIFA Arab Cup between the two countries. The two nations have played 35 games against each other; Tunisia leads in wins with 16 to Egypts's 11, with the two sides drawing eight times.

## Background

Egypt is the first African and Arab country to participate in a FIFA World Cup in 1934, it also participated in the 1990 and 2018 editions. Tunisia has participated six times in the FIFA World Cup, the biggest men's football event in the world, in 1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018 and 2022.
| Year | Egypt | Egypt | Tunisia | Tunisia |
| Year | Qualification | Round | Qualification | Round |
| 1934 | Qualified – Group 12 winner | First round | Part of France | — |
| 1978 | Did not qualify – Final round loser | — | Qualified – Final round winner | Group stage |
| 1990 | Qualified – Final round winner | Group stage | Did not qualify – Final round loser | — |
| 1998 | Did not qualify – Final round loser | — | Qualified – Final round winner | Group stage |
| 2002 | Did not qualify – Second round winner | — | Qualified – Second round winner | Group stage |
| 2006 | Did not qualify – Second round loser | — | Qualified – Second round winner | Group stage |
| 2018 | Qualified – Third round winner | Group stage | Qualified – Third round winner | Group stage |
| 2022 | Did not qualify – Third round loser | — | Qualified – Third round winner | Group stage |

## History

The match between the Egyptian and the Tunisian team are one of Africa's best and most exciting matches for their long continental history. The two teams have met 33 times in both official and friendly matches. Tunisian and Egyptian teams have collected 19 official matches and 14 friendly matches. The overall record is more favorable to the Tunisians as they won 15 matches and Egypt won 11 matches and ended 8 matches with a draw; however Egypt has achieved more successes in Africa than Tunisia.
The Eagles scored 38 goals in the Pharaohs' goal, while Egypt scored 32 goals against Tunisia. The largest goal scoring match was on 11 December 1977 for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification after the great win of the Tunisians 4–1 which contributed in their qualification for the World Cup.
Tunisia have faced the Egyptian team 7 times in qualifying for either the World Cup or the African Nations Cup. The three World Cup qualifications were in 1974, 1978 and 1998 where Tunisia qualified in the last two editions against Egypt. The four qualifiers for the African Nations Cup were in 1978 (Tunisia won 3–2 after drawing 2–2), 1984 (0–0 draw in Tunis and the Pharaohs won in Cairo 1–0), 1992 (the teams drew 2–2 twice) and 2015 (Tunisia won 1–0 and 2–1 respectively), in addition to the current 2019 qualifiers for the fifth time, which Tunisia won the first game 1–0 in Radès and lost the second game in Alexandria 2–3.
The two teams met twice in the African Nations Cup finals in 2000 in Nigeria when Tunisia won 1–0 and in the next edition in 2002 in Mali when Egypt won with the same result. Hossam Hassan is the most of Egyptian players participating in the games of the Pharaohs against the Eagles of Carthage with 12 games, while Wahbi Khazri comes as the most of Tunisian players to participate in their matches against Egypt by 3 games.
Both Egypt and Tunisia also share a similar dubious record in the FIFA World Cup, with both teams being unable to progress beyond the group stage despite Tunisia qualifying for the World Cup five times, while Egypt qualified only three times.

## List of matches

| # | Date | Location | Home Team | Score | Away team | Competition |
| 1 | 8 December 1972 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 2−1 | Tunisia | 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 2 | 17 December 1972 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 2−0 | Egypt | 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 3 | 15 August 1973 | Tripoli, Libya | Tunisia | 1−0 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 4 | 27 September 1974 | Damascus, Syria | Egypt | 0−2 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 5 | 13 March 1977 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 2−2 | Tunisia | 1978 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 6 | 27 April 1977 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 3−2 | Egypt | 1978 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 7 | 25 November 1977 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 3−2 | Tunisia | 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 8 | 11 December 1977 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 4−1 | Egypt | 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 9 | 14 August 1983 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | 1984 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 10 | 28 August 1983 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 0−0 | Egypt | 1984 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 11 | 13 July 1988 | Amman, Jordan | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | 1988 Arab Cup |
| 12 | 15 March 1989 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 0−0 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 13 | 29 May 1989 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 14 | 16 June 1989 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−1 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 15 | 7 November 1989 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 0−4 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 16 | 14 April 1991 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 2−2 | Egypt | 1992 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 17 | 26 July 1991 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 2−2 | Tunisia | 1992 African Cup of Nations qualification |
| 18 | 7 November 1993 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 2−0 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 19 | 2 January 1995 | Sousse, Tunisia | Tunisia | 2−0 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 20 | 14 April 1995 | Port Said, Egypt | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 21 | 8 January 1996 | Ismailia, Egypt | Egypt | 2−1 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 22 | 12 January 1997 | Tunis, Tunisia | Tunisia | 1−0 | Egypt | 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 23 | 8 June 1997 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 0−0 | Tunisia | 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 24 | 7 February 2000 | Kano, Nigeria | Egypt | 0−1 | Tunisia | 2000 African Cup of Nations |
| 25 | 25 January 2002 | Bamako, Mali | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | 2002 African Cup of Nations |
| 26 | 20 November 2002 | Radès, Tunisia | Tunisia | 0−0 | Egypt | Friendly |
| 27 | 16 November 2005 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−2 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 28 | 16 October 2012 | Abu Dhabi, UAE | Egypt | 0−1 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 29 | 10 September 2014 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 0−1 | Tunisia | 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 30 | 19 November 2014 | Monastir, Tunisia | Tunisia | 2−1 | Egypt | 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 31 | 8 January 2017 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−0 | Tunisia | Friendly |
| 32 | 11 June 2017 | Radès, Tunisia | Tunisia | 1−0 | Egypt | 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 33 | 16 November 2018 | Alexandria, Egypt | Egypt | 3−2 | Tunisia | 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification |
| 34 | 15 December 2021 | Doha, Qatar | Tunisia | 1−0 | Egypt | 2021 FIFA Arab Cup |
| 35 | 12 September 2023 | Cairo, Egypt | Egypt | 1−3 | Tunisia | Friendly |

## Statistics

Summary of the confrontations between Egypt and Tunisia on 12 September 2023 :
| Competition | Matches | Egypt Wins | Draws | Tunisia Wins | Egypt Goals | Tunisia Goals |
| Africa Cup of Nations | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| FIFA World Cup qualification | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| Africa Cup of Nations qualification | 10 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 15 |
| Arab Cup | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Friendly Match | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 12 | 15 |
| Total | 35 | 11 | 8 | 16 | 33 | 42 |