The Tunisia national football team resumes competition on Sunday, June 21, at the BBVA Stadium in Monterrey, where they will face the Japan national team, as part of the second round of the group stage of the 2026 World Cup. The Tunisian team suffered a humiliating defeat with a score of 5-1 against Sweden in the first round, which led to the departure of coach Sabri Lamouchi and his replacement by Hervé Renard. In direct confrontations, Japan won five of the last six matches against Tunisia, the last of which was a 2-0 win in a friendly match held in Kobe in October 2023. The Tunisian team occupies 55th place globally according to the FIFA ranking, and has only achieved one win in the last eight international matches in all competitions. The team can find some comfort in knowing that they achieved a win in their last two participations in the World Cup in 2022 and 2018, and that they defeated Japan 3-0 in the final of the Kirin friendly tournament four years ago. On the other hand, the Japanese team won a valuable draw with a score of 2-2 against the Netherlands in their opening match in Group Six last weekend. The excitement of the match intensified in the second half, where Virgil van Dijk opened the scoring with a header, but Kito Nakamura equalized the score with a ground shot from the edge of the penalty area. Hervé Renard hopes to make an immediate impact with Tunisia, which is seeking to achieve an upset at the end of this week. Renard is particularly remembered for leading Saudi Arabia to a surprising win in the group stage against Argentina, which later won the title, in Qatar. The upcoming match against Japan is an opportunity for Tunisia to win and return to the competition in Group Six. The possible lineups for the two teams include Shamaakh, Valery, Rakek, Talbi, Abdi, Skhiri, Khazri, Ashoury, Hannibal, Ghribi, and Shawat for the Tunisian team, and Suzuki, Taniguchi, Watanabe, Ito, Sugawara, Kamada, Sano, Nakamura, Rowan, Maeda, and Ueda for the Japanese team.