AFCON 2024: What Namibia's 'Wild' Last-Minute Victory Over Tunisia Means For Football World

Namibia shocked the footballing world after pulling off a miraculous victory over Tunisia in the Africa Cup of Nations 2024. History unfolded at the AFCON 2024 when Deon Kavendji broke the deadlock for Namibia during their group game against a top-30 footballing side, Tunisia, in the 88th minute. A fan highlighted how historic this victory was as he wrote in a post on X, “Namibia, ranked 115th in the world, who have never won a single game at AFCON before, just scored this 88th-minute winner to beat Tunisia, who are ranked 28th in the world, which is the third highest of any African team. Wild.”

This upset in the opening stages of the AFCON 2024 has attracted a plethora of reactions from the footballing world. One of the fans highlighted that Namibia didn’t just beat a top team but dominated them from the get-go. He wrote, “Not only did they pull off the upset, Namibia controlled this game from start to finish. They were super impressive, Tunisia looked bereft of ideas”.

While one user added, “AFCON is usually wild but this is turning into a whole new level of wild”.

In one reply, one user suggested that the ongoing tournament was the best AFCON in history. He wrote, “The group stages have been a David vs Goliath battle. Best AFCON yet!”

One individual just couldn’t believe that Namibia were outside the top 100 in FIFA rankings, based on their performance yesterday. “Can’t believe they are 115th with the kind of football they were playing yesterday”, he wrote.

Another agreed saying, “They looked brilliant, had really good control of the game overall and didn’t give Tunisia too much at all”.

Tunisia and Namibia were drawn into Group E of the AFCON 2024. Their opener took place on January 16 at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium. In that match, Namibia created more chances, were much more precise in their attack and worked like a unit in the midfield. This helped them register 13 shots in the game, six of which were on the target. Their constant aggression ultimately led to their first goal, thanks to a sublime cross from Bethuel Muzeu and an even better finish from Deon Kavendji.

It was their first-ever win in the AFCON, which put them in second place in the group just below Mali who won their tournament opener 2-0 against South Africa.

Namibia will be playing their second game against South Africa next on January 22 at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium again.