Fear of losing dominates Arabic derby build-up

MUNICH, June 13: Fear of defeat and an early World Cup exit has dominated the mood of Tunisia and Saudi Arabia ahead of tomorrow's Arabic derby in Group H.

Tunisia's French coach Roger Lemerre, may uniquely have won successive continental championships in Europe and Africa but, after overseeing holders France's first round exit at the 2002 finals, hopes to erase bad memories of the global tournament.

Saudi Arabia, in their fourth consecutive World Cup, also want to wipe out a nightmare -- they were thrashed 8-0 by Germany in their first outing at the 2002 finals in Japan and departed without scoring a goal.

So it is no surprise that Lemerre, 65 this month, and his Saudi counterpart, Brazilian Marcos Paqueta, are approaching the tense clash at the Allianz Arena with some trepidation.

Tunisia are the only African nation with previous experience at the finals. After losing on penalties to Nigeria in this year's Nations Cup quarter-finals, Trabelsi said the 2004 African champions must learn to avoid costly errors.

Tunisia will be without leading striker, Brazilian-born Francileudo dos Santos, top scorer in the qualifiers with six goals, and have made two injury-enforced changes to their squad.

Their preferred 4-4-2 formation is likely to find midfield space at a premium against Saudi Arabia's 4-5-1, intricate approach work and dangerous counter-attacking.

Coach Paqueta, who won under-17 and under-20 world youth titles with Brazil, has conducted several closed training sessions in a bid to emulate the feat of the 1994 Saudi side that reached the World Cup second round in America.

But they have not won in the finals since those famous victories over Morocco and Belgium in New Jersey and Washington.

Tunisia are seeking their second win in 10 outings at the World Cup, having won their first game against Mexico in 1978.

They have failed to win their eight subsequent group games, but hope support from about 15,000 Tunisians living in Germany will lift them against the Saudis.

Probable teams:

Tunisia (4-4-2): 1-Ali Boumnijel; 6-Hatem Trabelsi, 15-Radhi Jaidi, 3-Karim Hagui, 18-David Jemmali; 20-Hamed Namouchi, 12-Joahar Mnari, 14-Adel Chedli, 13-Riadh Bouazizi; 5-Ziad Jaziri, 9-Yassine Chikhaoui Coach: Roger Lemerre

Saudi Arabia (4-5-1): 1-Mohamed Al Deayea; 3-Redha Tuker, 13-Hussein Sulaimani, 4-Hamad Al Montashari, 2-Ahmed Dokhi; 14-Saud Al Khariri, 7-Mohamed Ameen, 8-Mohamed Noor, 10-Mohammad Al Shalhoub, 9-Sami Al Jaber; 20-Yassir Al Qahtani Coach: Marcos Paqueta

Referee: Mark Shield (Australia) Linesmen: Nathan Gibson (Australia) Ben Wilson (Australia)

REUTERS

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