Tunisia threw away a five-goal lead in the last five minutes against the table-topping Slovenians in Metz to put their qualification through to the eighth-finals on Saturday in doubt.

Slovenia vs Tunisia 28:28 (15:13)
Arènes de Metz, Metz

Despite coming back from a two-goal half-time deficit, Iceland now know that two wins from their final two games will ensure qualification no matter what happens in all remaining group games.

However, ahead of the Iceland vs Angola match later this evening Tunisia, FYR Macedonia and Angola are all in contention for the final two eighth-final spots from the group.

With the draw, Tunisia moved into fourth place in the group on three points and face their continental rivals on Thursday (19 Jan), while Iceland, after their Angola match today, face the tough prospect of FYR Macedonia in their final game on the same day.

Vid Kavticnik’s three early goals had put his Slovenia side 4:3 up (sixth minute), but Tunisia came back strongly to leaf 6:3 in the 10th minute.

Hafedh Zouabi’s team kept in touch as the score went back and forth like the ball on the court and when Mosbah Sanai equalised in the 18th minute to make it 10:10, it was his fourth strike out of four attempts.

But Tunisia suffered a blow moments later when their influential pivot Issam Tej was shown a direct red card after he body-checked Miha Zarabec on the line and Tunisia found themselves 15:13 down at the break.

Slovenia could have been forgiven for thinking they could take their foot off of the gas, but Tunisia had other ideas. The opening 15 minutes of the second period saw them outscore their opponents 10:5 – including four Sanai strikes (23:20) and put themselves firmly in charge.

Combined with Makrem Missaoui’s heroics in goal again - he scored a full-court goal again - the majority Tunisian fans amongst the 3,039 crowd were delirious with happiness as coach Veselin Vujovic called a team time out for Slovenia in the 45th minute, who found themselves 23:20 down.

The deficit rose to five as Amen Toumi’s 97 km/h shot in the 55th minute put Tunisia up 28:23. Even though Slovenia came back within two in the 56th minute a Missaoui save a minute later had the Tunisian fans in the arena thinking the win was theirs.

But Blaz Janc had other ideas as, after Slovenia came within one with a minute left, Tunisia could not score and when Toumi received a two-minute suspension for blocking Zarabec from re-starting with 19 seconds, the Slovenians moved the ball down court, Janc grabbed it on the wing and rose over his defender to sink home, sparking tears from the Tunisian fans inside and wild cheers from a Slovenia side who remain unbeaten in the group.

Best Player of the Match presented by Adidas: Mosbah SANAI (TUN)

Quotes after the match:

Veselin VUJOVIC – Slovenia coach: “I have a young team and I don’t know what happened today, maybe they are tired, but I am very satisfied with the final result.”

Hafedh ZOUABI – Tunisia coach: “We expected a hard game against Slovenia, especially as we have a lot of pressure on us. The Slovenian team worked very hard and the result for us was very important today. It meant everything for us to win this game and we were near to doing it, I am sorry how the match ended.”

Miha ZARABEC (SLO), player: “We showed our good and bad sides today. It’s fair that we drew, but we will learn a lot from our mistakes. Tunisia played well today, they deserved one point – I must say that only a great team can come back [like we did] today.”

Skander ZAIED (TUN): “We played with a lot of pressure and it was a very decisive match for us. We will play at our full for the rest of the competition.”