The Saudi Prince And His Chequebook

Tunisia vs Saudi Arabia
München

Both captains wore number thirteen for Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, as Munich staged its second World Cup Finals match.

The only positive aspect from the first twenty minutes of this match, was that it could only get better.

In the twenty-third minute, a long free kick bounced off two Saudi players in the penalty area and fell for Tunisia's Zied Jaziri, to scissor kick into the goal.

Other than that, not really a first-half worth wasting too many words on.

Half-time: (1:0).

A Saudi prince waved his flag, as the teams came out for the second half, and looked extremely happy; probably because he wasn't going to be paying out any win bonuses.

Maybe the players saw his grin and wanted to wipe the smile off his face, by forcing him to get his chequebook out after the game.

Twelve minutes later, the Saudi Arabia team were bowing down and kissing the turf; after Yasser Al Kahtani had shaken off two Tunisian defenders, on a run to the near post, and slipped Mohammed Noor's right-wing cross past Ali Boumnijel.

Then five minutes from time, Sami Al Jaber (replacing goalscorer Yasser Al Kahtani) had only been on the pitch two minutes, when he ran into plenty of space on the left and fired acrossAli Boumnijel; to put Saudi Arabia in front.

With relief, the Saudi prince put his wallet back as Radhi Jaidi equalised for Tunisia, in injury-time.

From a drab, dismal, damp squib of a start by two World Cup lightweights we actually had football drama of heavyweight quality at the end.

Final Score:
Tunisia 2 - Saudi Arabia 2

Goalscorers:
1:0 Zied Jaziri (23)
1:1 Yasser Al Kahtani (57)
1:2 Sami Al Jaber (85)
2:2 Radhi Jaidi (93)

Teams
Tunisia: (Captain Riadh Bouazizi/Hatem Trabelsi)
1 Ali Boumnijel; 3 Karim Haggui, 6 Hatem Trabelsi, 15 Radhi Jaidi, 18 David Jemmali; 12 Jaouhar Mnari, 13 Riadh Bouazizi, 14 Adel Chedli, 20 Hamed Namouchi; 5 Zied Jaziri, 9 Yacine Chikhaoui.

Saudi Arabia: (Captain Hussein Sulimani)
21 Mabrouk Zaid; 2 Ahmed Dokhi, 3 Redha Tukar, 4 Hamad Al Montashari, 13 Hussein Sulimani; 6 Omar Al Ghamdi, 8 Mohammed Noor, 14 Saud Khariri, 16 Khaled Aziz, 18 Nawaf Al Temyat; 20 Yasser Al Kahtani.

Referee:
Mark Shield (Australia)