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Click your way through the group stage and the knockouts to crown champion

Having stormed through African qualifying without conceding a goal, can Sabri Lamouchi lead the Eagles of Carthage out of the group stage for the first time?

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.

• Mali 1 Tunisia 1 (aet; Mali win 3-2 on penalties)

• North Africans fail to take the game to 10 men

There is perhaps no nation on earth whose football is as paranoid as that of Tunisia, and with so little reason. They qualified for a third successive World Cup with ease and forced a draw in a friendly against Brazil in November, yet their football is infected with fear. To watch them play is to experience a dystopian world in which imagination has been outlawed. In the end, they went out of the Cup of Nations on Saturday because their self-doubt proved even stronger than Malian self-destructiveness.

The Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra took the plaudits but this was a game Tunisia should never have lost. For over an hour and a half they played against 10. They took the lead in the 89th minute. Twice they led in the shootout. And somehow they still lost, undermined by their own unwillingness to take the game on. If they had only played, they would surely have won but as so often before, Tunisia did not just play. They squabbled and spoiled, feigned injury and moaned, and every so often forgot themselves, played a handful of passes and looked the decent side that they really should be.

After a group stage that delivered an average of 3.6 goals a game we look at the match-ups in Morocco that start on Saturday

Senegal, winners of the Afcon in 2022, have arguably the best collection of players, including the experience of Sadio Mané and the explosive talent of Nicolas Jackson, and are superior to their east African opponents. But Sudan, who qualified for the tournament despite the tragedy of a horrendous war in their country, certainly match the Lions of Teranga in fortitude. Sudan, coached by the Ghanaian Kwesi Appiah, who led his home country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, played all their qualifiers away from home, with the war, which began in April 2023, shutting down a thriving domestic league. The Sudan striker John Mano told the BBC of people back home: “Some of them cannot watch the matches … They can’t even listen on the radio … We are trying to free our country, through the football way.” A win for Sudan would be one of the fairytales of the tournament.

• Uganda knocked out after 3-1 defeat by Super Eagles

• Tanzania 1-1 Tunisia | Senegal 3-0 Benin | DRC 3-0 Botswana

Raphael Onyedika scored twice and Paul Onuachu netted his first international goal in four years as Nigeria beat 10-man Uganda 3-1 in Fes on Tuesday to record a third win in Group C at the Africa Cup of Nations and send the east African side home.

Nigeria finished top of the group with nine points followed by Tunisia and then Tanzania, who drew 1-1, with the latter reaching the last 16 as one of the four best third-placed sides.

• Group C: Nigeria 2-1 Tanzania; Tunisia 3-1 Uganda

• Group D: Senegal 3-0 Botswana; DR Congo 1-0 Benin

Ademola Lookman scored a superb second-half winner as Nigeria earned a 2-1 Group C victory against Tanzania in the pouring rain in Fes, a positive start for the silver medallists from the previous tournament, but one that was not without moments of alarm.

Nigeria were more dominant than the scoreline suggests in terms of possession and chances, but they failed to finish off the contest and were almost made to pay for their wastefulness in front of goal.