Celtic’s Sebastian Tounekti has scored his first goal for Tunisia.
In a friendly in Toronto against Scotland’s group stage opponents, the winger scored the only goal of the game, doing no harm at all to his chances of a place at the tournament.
The 23-year-old has featured regularly for Celtic this season, making 37 appearances in all, but his total of five goals could do with some improvement.
In the Tunisia game, which kicked off at midnight on Sunday UK time, Tounekti showed a one-on-one instinct that we haven’t been used to from his career in Scotland.
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Celtic’s Sebastian Tounekti hands Tunisia win over Haiti with goal
Played in by Ismael Gharbi of Augsburg, Tounekti tucked the ball underneath Alexandre Pierre after just seven minutes.
The Hoops man played 73 minutes before being replaced by Louey Ben Farhat in the 1-0 win.
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Tounekti was born in Norway to a Tunisian father and Norwegian mother. He was a youth international for Norway up until U19 level.
His switch to Tunisia was part of a wider push by the North African nation to secure more young talent in their side, particularly players born in Europe.
The game was the first in charge of the side for former Nottingham Forest boss Sabri Lamouchi who played for Marseille, Inter Milan and Monaco.
Ex-Parkhead boss Ronny Deila had been a surprise contender to be Tunisia manager, but ended up moving to Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Israel.
It’s fair to say that the dismissal of previous boss Sami Trabelsi was a popular decision among fans of the Eagles, who won just one of their four games at AFCON.
At this summer’s World Cup, they are in a tough group alongside Japan, the Netherlands and the winner of the European play-off final between Sweden and Poland on Tuesday.
Tounekti earned rave reviews at AFCON for his substitute appearance against Nigeria, but wasn’t given a minute in their eventual exit to Mali.
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Celtic players at this summer’s World Cup
Benjamin Nygren and Sweden kept their World Cup hopes alive with a win over Ukraine in the semi-finals of this week’s play-offs.
Liam Scales and Ireland weren’t so fortunate, being eliminated by Czechia in a heart-breaking penalty shootout in Prague.
Kieran Tierney’s Scotland met Daizen Maeda’s Japan in a friendly at Hampden on Saturday evening, which saw the latter named as captain.
Alistair Johnston and Auston Trusty will both be playing for tournament hosts.
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