U-17 World Cup: Tunisia coach Amine Naffati bemoans missed chances

Tunisia U-17 Boys national team coach Amine Naffati believes the North Africans should have secured something from their 2025 U-17 FIFA World Cup clash had they been clinical in front of the goal on Thursday in Qatar.

After the North African had several scoring opportunities, Facundo Jainikoski emerged from the bench for the second game in a row, to inspire Argentina to victory, to help secure their passage to the knockout stages.

After an even opening period, Diego Placente turned to his No18 to change the game. Just as he did against Belgium, he scored within ten minutes of entering the fray.

Bearing down on the Tunisia goal, the Argentinos Juniors forward let fly and found the bottom corner. He almost doubled his money soon after, only to see a rasping drive cannon off the crossbar.

Tunisia had chances to score

Speaking after the game, Naffati told FIFA.com: “We played well tactically in the first half, but we had some difficulties getting the ball out of our half. We corrected that at half-time, and then we were able to get the ball and play our game.

“We had chances to score, and before Argentina’s goal, we had an opportunity to score, but they scored on a transition. We’ll take the positives, we’ll fix the negatives and we’ll look ahead to the next match against Belgium.”

Argentina coach Diego Placente termed Tunisia as a toughest opponent by saying: “We’re happy because sometimes it’s not easy, and even less so to qualify in the second match. And happy because we’ve beaten the two toughest opponents. We played better today and we’re satisfied.”

The defeat left Tunisia third in Group D with three points, while Argentina reached six points. Tunisia still have a chance to qualify if they win their last group and second-placed Belgium suffer defeat.

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