Club World Cup sides: a stumbling block for ES Tunis

ES Tunis got off to a bad start at the 2025 Club World Cup. The Africans were outplayed on the pitch and on the scoreboard by Flamengo, who won 2-0 thanks to goals from Giorgian de Arrascaeta ('17) and Luiz Araujo ('70). Defeats are a rare occurrence for the country's most successful team, which has only suffered six defeats since May 2024.

In the last 51 matches, half of those six defeats have come against clubs playing in the United States. This curse began in the final of the CAF Champions League, when they lost 1-0 in the second leg to Al Ahly, an Egyptian team from Group A that won the title after a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

But they were not ES Tunis' only Club World Cup tormentors. In the quarterfinals of this year's African Champions League, Mamelodi Sundowns beat the Tunisians 1-0 in the first round. The South Africans, who will make their debut against Ulsan HD, made it through after winning the second leg.

The other three defeats came against Zarzis (October 2024) and Bizertin (February 2025) in the league, and Pyramids (January 2025) in the CAF Champions League. The rest of the matches are divided into 12 draws and 33 victories, figures that demonstrate the superiority of the Tunisian team in local tournaments and at confederation level. In fact, they came into this tournament with nine wins and two draws since losing to Mamelodi last April.

This curious curse of the ES Tunis, if the sample is enlarged, finds a new test in 2023. In the first leg of that year's CAF Champions League semi-final, they lost to Wydad Casablanca. And although they neutralised that result in the second leg, they missed out on the final on penalties. Since that first match against the Moroccans, they have played 79 matches and lost 10, four of them against World Cup participants in 2025.