South Sudan's U23 team during their match with Tunisian U23 team March 24, 2019 - Credit to SSFA

South Sudan’s U23 national team has been eliminated from this year total Africa Cup of Nation qualifiers losing 1-0 to Tunisian’s U23 team yesterday on Sunday.

The Young Stars should have taken the lead with Wani Ivan making a brilliant run down the left flack and found Maakueth Wol Akeen who misplaced the final pass wide.

The Tunisian team was reduced to 10 men after one of the Tunisian players was shown a straight red card for a foul on Joseph Kuch Nyuar in the early stages of the first half.

After the break, the Tunisian came back strong and gave to much pressure to the South Sudanese team with some perfect runs from team captain on the left side of the pitch.

Thus gave Bright Stars Captain, John Kuol Chol a lot of work to do, with the pressure mounting on the South Sudanese team.

A penalty was awarded to the Tunisian team on the 65th minute and Hassim Hamid slotting home past Ramadan John Mayik to give Tunisian a 1-0 aggregate win.

As the clock ticked, Bright Stars where reduced to ten men with Peter Sunday sent off for a foul on a Tunisian player on the 85th Minute.

The Bright Stars team were held at the Airport in Tunis for eight hours before receiving visas.

Head coach Simon James Yor said although they went through a lot in Tunisia, the team had played their hearts out.

“After all the mistreatment from the Tunisian FA, am happy with the performance my team put out here today.

He went on to say he sees a bright feature for the team which mainly comprises of players within Juba and a few from Uganda and Kenya.

“This team has a bright feature ahead of them because the way they have played shows that if they stay together for a long time they will make our country proud on the day”.

In the other games played, Zambia eliminated Malawi 2-0 on aggregate, while Guinea ejected Senegal and DR Congo saw off Morocco.

The remaining games to decide which teams qualify for the final round will be played on March 26th.

The third and final round of the qualifiers will be held from June 3-11 to determine seven teams to join hosts Egypt.