Having both won their respective opening World Cup qualifying fixtures last time out, Zambia and Tunisia go toe-to-toe at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium on Tuesday.
The clash in Ndola will have a massive say on how Group E eventually pans out as the two favourites to progress face off against each other.
Match preview
Tunisia breezed past the National Thunder of Equatorial Guinea with an emphatic 3-0 victory at the Estadio Olimpico de Rades on Friday.
Mondher Kebaier's men struggled to find a breakthrough in the opening 45 minutes, but a resounding second-performance brought about goals from Dylan Bronn, Ellyes Skhiri and Wahbi Khazri.
The Eagles of Carthage have now emerged victorious in six of their last seven games on home turf, recording shutouts in four of those matches.
Their next assignment sees them go away from home for the first time in six matches since they claimed a 5-2 triumph over Libya back in March.
Of all African teams, only Nigeria and Cameroon have made more FIFA World Cup appearances than Tuesday's visitors, who would take a big step towards a sixth finals with all three points.
Zambia made an impressive start to their qualifying campaign following a 2-1 away victory over Mauritania at the Olympic Stadium on Friday.
Beston Chambeshi's men took the lead inside the opening 10 minutes thanks to Enock Mwepu, before Prince Mumba doubled their lead just before the hour mark, but Mamadou Niass pulled one back for his side shortly after coming on as a substitute.
The Chipolopolo, who are in search of a first ever FIFA World Cup berth, have made a positive start which they will be seeking to maintain.
Tuesday's hosts played out a 3-3 draw versus Algeria in their last home encounter, which should give the east Africans reason to believe that they can pull off another impressive result against tough opponents.
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Team News
Twenty-year-old Prince Mumba opened his Zambia account with a well-taken finish versus Mauritania, and he heads into Tuesday's game full of confidence.
Patson Daka endured a frustrating day in front of goal in the aforementioned game, but the Leicester City forward still represents his nation's biggest threat in attack.
Wahbi Khazri is now up to 20 international goals for Tunisia following his coolly taken penalty in the last game and only two players have scored more goals for Tuesday's visitors in history.
Seifeddine Jaziri could be recalled into the starting lineup for this one after he had to make do with a cameo appearance last time out.
Zambia possible starting lineup:
Chibwe; Kabwe, Chanda, Sakala, Chepeshi; Mumba, L.Musonda, B.Musonda; Chilufya, Daka, Mwepu
Tunisia possible starting lineup:
Ben Mustapha; Kechrida, Bronn, Meriah, Maaloul; Sassi, Laidouni, Skhiri; Khazri, Jaziri, Khaoui
We say: Zambia 0-1 Tunisia
Both sides will be full of confidence heading into the contest which should make for an enthralling affair. While we expect Zambia to put up a solid fight, we are also backing Tunisia to claim all three points, albeit by a narrow margin.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Zambia win with a probability of 41.82%. A win for Tunisia had a probability of 32.12% and a draw had a probability of 26.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Zambia win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.24%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.79%) and 2-0 (7.26%). The likeliest Tunisia win was 0-1 (8.74%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.39%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5.3% likelihood.
