Iceland vs Tunisia 22:22 (11:13)
Arènes de Metz, Metz
Arènes de Metz was again a 5,054 sell-out as, for the neutral fan at least, the two teams with two losses each, battled hard, cracked under pressure and provided moments of sublime technical skill to frustrate and amaze their own sets of fans present – with the majority Tunisia fans providing the most vocal support.
The first two minutes of the match saw Amine Bannour, later named best player of the match, open the scoring for Tunisia and then Runar Karason get Iceland off of the mark, who went 3:2 up after six minutes.
However, that lead was the last time they would find themselves in front for the rest of the half as Bannour went on a one-man mission to get the victory for his side. His eight first-half goals meant the North African side ended the half in front (13:11), but that was only a small part of the story.
Bjorgvin Gustavsson in the Icelandic goal and Makrem Missaoui in the Tunisian nets pulled off nine saves between them in the first 30 minutes – one from Missaoui setting up Oussama Boughanmi with the ball and from a seemingly-impossible position, right on the back left corner of his own half, he managed a full-court strike from a near horizontal position.
With the pressure on both teams to secure a victory, and the cauldron of noise inside the arena, tempers began to flare as Boughanmi and Gustavsson clashed in the area after Karason and the Tunisian left wing came together – both were given two-minute suspensions by the Argentinean referees.
As his side went 6:3 down after a 4:0 run from Tunisia, Iceland coach Geir Sveinsson called a team time out as the crescendo built and the Tunisian players ran to their time out huddle via their fans, jumping and raising their arms to increase the noise inside the arena.
Iceland had their chances to go into the break in front – Gudjon Sigurdsson had a penalty saved by Missaoui and the experienced left wing should have made it a fourth unanswered goal for Iceland in the 25th minute but he opted to lob the goalkeeper and the ball bounced off the crossbar and away to safety. Sveinsson’s side ended the half with a two-minute suspension for Bjarki Gunnarsson and a turnover.
The break did not stop the flow of the game as Missaoui again was in good form but Karason and a quick Iceland attack drew the game level (13:13) in the 35th minute when Tunisia were too slow into the tackle and the Iceland number five spun his marker and smashed home.
When Iceland went ahead (14:13) a minute later through Omar Magnusson, it was the first time the Europeans had been in front for exactly 30 minutes and it prompted coach Hafedh Zouabi to take a time out early in the half.
It did little though as Iceland went further ahead (17:14) and with less than 20 minutes left, Tunisia were in danger of adding a third loss to their record at France 2017 so far.
But a combination of pure skill from Boughanmi and a moment of madness from Magnusson, when the right back got confused with a free throw, sending the ball across his open goal straight into the hands of Amen Toumi who threw into an open goal, instead of handing it to goalkeeper Aron Edvardsson standing a metre away (17:16).
Iceland's ill-discipline, caused in equal measure by their own nervousness and fervent Tunisian attacking, costed them dearly when Janus Smarason was given a two-minute suspension – and the scores were all back level (18:18) as a double unanswered strike from Bannour.
The last quarter saw the game swing backwards and forwards with tempers boiling over at times – even amongst teammates. After Boughanmi had easily passed Karason to bring his side within one (20:19), the resting Gustavasson stood up and berated the close by player for falling asleep on the job.
When the final buzzer did sound in a moment of calm – fittingly after Bannour had scored the last goal of the match – it was an anti-climax as fans inside had looked forward to one more drama to come, but the real drama lies in whether Tunisia or Iceland can find a win in their remaining two games and seal qualification through to the eighth-finals.
Best Player of the Match presented by Adidas: Amine BANNOUR (TUN)
Quotes after the match:
Asgeir HALLGRIMSSON (ISL), player: “It was a tough match with not a lot of goals; a defensive game with two really strong goalkeeper.
“l think that we should have done better though as we made too many technical faults, overthrowing balls too easily, especially in the first half where we ended two goals behind.
“If everything was normal for us we should have been ahead by two, three goals. It was a tough match, but a good match. Tunisia fought well and are a good team.”
Makrem MISSAOUI (TUN), player: “I feel regret that we didn’t win this game. We played and fought well for the win.
“Unfortunately, the score isn't in our favour and our chance to qualify for the next step was here. I hope Macedonia beats Iceland and we win against Slovenia.”