Tunisia celebrate Bouzaine's leveller (Allsport)

By PA Sport Staff

Anything less than victory against Russia in their final Group H game on Friday will result in an early flight home for the under-achieving Belgium side.

But coach Robert Waseige believes the size of that challenge could finally bring out the best in his players to keep alive their World Cup dream.

The Belgians seemed to struggle with the heat of Oita as they were held to a draw by the improving Tunisians.

They now find themselves a point behind Russia and two points behind group leaders Japan, who face Tunisia in Osaka on Friday.

But while Waseige feels that his players let themselves and the country down, he feels that they will improve in their next encounter.

He said: "I am not really happy because everybody probably felt that it would be easy to play against Tunisia, but that was not true as we have seen today.

"In the past Belgium has always played better when we have not been the favourites.

"Tunisia played very well today so maybe it will be easier for us in our last game against Russia which we need to win to make the next round.

"We always have problems against smaller nations and Tunisia is a smaller nation.

"Today we needed to get pole position which was not possible.

"The Tunisian team caused us a lot of pain. They were technically stronger than us and their individual actions were a lot better than ours.

"Perhaps the players will adapt to the final game better when they have to win."

Belgium knew that victory by two clear goals would be enough to put them on top of the group, but now they are in danger of going home early.

Marc Wilmots gave his side the perfect start, but Raouf Bouzaine's glorious free-kick denied them and gave Tunisia a point and an outside chance of reaching the second stages themselves.

They also need to win their final game to have a chance of going through, but coach Ammar Souayah was happy that his team still have a chance of qualifying, especially after a difficult build-up to the tournament.

He said: "We've only had the players together for a relatively short time, about a month.

"Before that, many of us were unfamiliar but we are getting better all the time.

"I challenge anyone to put together a team that has only known each other for a month and to display this sort of form."

However Souayah has already, rather surprisingly, written off his team's chances in their final group game against co-hosts Japan.

"We don't really have much of a chance against them at home in front of their own crowd," he said.

"They have a very good team and it is going to be extremely difficult."