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had made a bright enough start despite the Russians enjoying the lion's share of the possession.

They almost took the lead when Yuri Nikiforov came close to putting through his own net in the 22nd minute attempting to prise the ball off two Tunisian strikers, the ball trickling just wide of Nigmatullin's right hand post.

At the other end Marat Izmailov forced Boumnijel to make a smart save away to his left with a rising snapshot.

The match soon became bogged down in a midfield traffic jam and Igor Semshov went in the referee's book for chopping down Jaziri.

Nifikorov tried to raise the level above the soporific with a speculative drive from distance but was way off target in the 38th minute.

The Russians left playmaker Alexander Mostovoi and central defender Alexei Smertin on the bench as both had been doubtful beforehand with injury and coach Oleg Romantsev elected not to risk either of them.

Russian president Vladimir Putin had seen the team off to Japan calling on them to make the country proud by reaching the second round playing quality football - and some finally surfaced once they had taken

the lead.

The Tunisians, who crashed out in the opening phase at France 98, are playing in the event for only the third time, with the Russians making their ninth appearance - including those as the Soviet Union until 1990. The Carthage Eagles, whose starting line-up contained just four homebased players, were forced to leave defender Emir Mkademi on the bench as he also recovers from injury while fellow defender Jose Clayton was also not starting owing to a knee ligament problem.

TEAMS

RUSSIA: Ruslan Nigmatullin, Yuri Kovtun, Yuri Nikiforov, Andrei Solomatin, Igor Semshov (Dmitri Kokhlov 45), Viktor Onopko, Valery Karpin, Yegor Titov, Vladimir Beschastnykh (Dmitry Sychyov 55), Ruslan Pimenov, Marat Izmailov (Dmitri Alenichev 78).

TUNISIA: Ali Boumnijel, Khaled Badra (Ali Zitouni 83), Mohamed Mkacher, Ziad Jaziri, Hatem Trabelsi, Hassene Gabsi (Zoubeir Beya 67), Adel Sellimi (Imed Mhadhebi 67), Raouf Bouzaiene, Riadh Bouazizi, Radhi Jaidi, Slim Ben Achour.

Referee: Peter Prendergast

(Jamaica).