The Red Devils knew that a win by two clear goals would be enough to put them on top of Group H and they were determined to make an early breakthrough.

Marc Wilmots tried to test Ali Boumnijel in the very first minute with a 30-yard free-kick, but he failed to get the power behind his right-foot shot to trouble him.

Moments later and space opened up for Timmy Simons to try his luck from 25 yards, but he slashed his right-foot effort well over the bar.

But Belgium did not have to wait long to take the lead as they made the breakthrough with their first real passing move of the match after just 13 minutes.

Eric Deflandre whipped in a cross to the far post, where Peter van der Heyden was on hand to flick the ball back into the danger area and Branko Struper knocked down to Wilmots to fire his 27th international goal from close range.

But Tunisia upped the tempo after that early blow and were level just four minutes later.

Yves Vanderhaeghe fouled Adel Sellimi outside the box and up stepped Raouf Bouzaine to curl an unstoppable left-foot shot past Geert de Vlieger into the top corner of the Belgium net.

That visibly lifted Tunisia and they almost turned the match on its head in the 20th minute when Ziad Jaziri got away from his marker, but he pulled his right-foot shot wide of the post to the relief of their opponents.

Some inexperience by Tunisia put them under unnecessary pressure as they conceded two free-kicks, but poor shots from Strupar and Wilmots were blocked.

Tunisia continued to look dangerous on the break and a good penetrating run from Hatem Trabelsi had Belgium in all kinds of trouble.

But de Vlieger managed to get a hand to his cross and Deflandre got back to tidy up with two players waiting to pounce.

Kaies Ghodhbane was rightly booked in the 43rd minute after almost tearing the shirt from the back of van der Heyden.