In December 2018, French coach Alain Giresse was hired to oversee the team at the 2019 AFCON finals due to his experience in African football and his outstanding record as a player with the French national team. Despite the good results in friendly matches by defeating World Cup finalist Croatia 2–1, the start of the competition was poor after three draws in the group stage against Angola 1–1 and Mali in the same result 1–1 before a 0–0 draw against Mauritania to qualify for the Round 16 with great difficulty in second place. In the next round, the results improved by beating Ghana on penalties, to qualify for the quarter-finals and also beat the surprise of the tournament Madagascar 3–0 to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time in 15 years when Tunisia won the AFCON in 2004 before they narrowly lost to Senegal 1–0 in extra time after a referee dispute of Bamlak Tessema because of not giving a clear penalty to Tunisia 4 minutes before the end of the game to complete the competition in fourth place behind Nigeria. Nonetheless, it stands as the best performance of Tunisia since winning 2004 AFCON at home.