Saudi Arabia trail Tunisia at break

Tunisia 1 Saudi Arabia 0

Zied Jaziri gave Tunisia a 1-0 half-time lead against Saudi Arabia with a fine finish that gave goalkeeper Mabrouk Zaid little chance in Group H’s battle of the Arab nations in Munich.

The France-based forward fired an acrobatic scissor kick home from inside the penalty area midway through the first 45 minutes after the Saudi defence struggled to clear a lofted free-kick sent into the area by Adel Chedli.

Tunisia’s lead was well deserved in a game of little incident and, with coach Roger Lemerre targeting a place in the second round for his team, Jaziri’s goal could prove to be a vital strike.

The Tunisians started the brighter of the two teams and, with barely two minutes on the clock, Australian referee Mark Shield was forced to turn down what looked like a legitimate penalty claim when Rehda Tuker upended Jaziri.

Just six minutes later, Chedli’s corner caused consternation for the Saudis and Karim Haggui’s downward header bounced high off the turf before comfortably clearing the cross bar.

Saudi Arabia offered little threat to the Tunisian goal. Former Asian Player of the Year Nawaf Al Temyat’s shot was deflected wide for a corner 14 minutes into the game while his Al Hilal team-mate Yasser Al Kahtani saw his header bounce weakly to safety.

Jaziri opened the scoring in the 23rd minute with his spectacular finish, although Saudi Arabia picked up their game a little after going behind.

Central defender Redha Tukar came closest to putting the Saudis on the scoreboard with eight minutes left in the half, but the Al Ittihad man’s well-struck free-kick was comfortably collected by Ali Boumnijel in the Tunisian goal as he dived to his right.

Al Temyat then tried his luck from long range as the game entered the last minute of the first half, but the Al Hilal midfielder’s effort was wide of Boumnijel’s right post.