Senegal v Tunisia - Live!

Preamble:
All the best scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark were, of course, filmed in Tunisia but none of them starred a stroppy Senegalese football team spurred on by a seething sense of injustice - which means today's Group D grudge clash could be more thrilling than anything Indiana Jones* ever served up.

Senegal have been lusting for vengeance ever since the 2004 quarter-final, when hosts Tunisia knocked them out 1-0, the goal coming despite the fact that El-hadji Diouf was convinced he'd been fouled in the build up. Diouf was sent off for protesting and the matched ended with the pitch engulfed in freakish fog and players and officials exchanging insults and sneaky slaps .... and it continued this week in Ghana, with Diouf promising to "avenge" that defeat and a senior member of the Senegalese FA decking a Tunisian journalist. Diouf's been so fired up all week that he clattered team-mate Frédéric Mendy in training yesterday, meaning the midfielder will miss the match.

Diouf's Senegal's captain but no longer their best player (in fact, even though he was voted African Footballer of the Year, he was never their best player) - Mamadou Niang is the main man now, and one of the principal reasons why Senegal, who haven't beaten Tunisia since 1989, must surely start as favourites. In addition to their superior offensive skill, the Teranga Lions are also faster and more powerful than their opponents and have been in much better form over the last 18 months. Having said that, Tunisian club sides, from which much of their national team is drawn, dominated African club competitions this year, a fact that has led their manager, Roger Lemerre, to suggest the conditions they'll be more comfortable with the conditions in Tamale.

My prediction? The admirable attacking intent that has characterized the tournament so far will continue - and possibly spill over into bare aggression. Goals and red cards a gogo, then.

For more on the Group that South African will prop up, go here. And for all sorts of other guff and jive from Ghana, go here. You know you want to.

*Who amongst us can honestly say we don't regularly delay entering trains or elevators just so that we can then heroically jump in nanoseconds before the doors slam shut, thus injecting a little Indy magic into our otherwise humdrum daily lives?