Roger Lemerre has set his sights on a place in the knockout phase of the World Cup as the Tunisians aim to start their third consecutive finals campaign with a win over Saudi Arabia in Munich.

The North Africans have qualified for each of the last two finals - and for three in total - but have yet to make it through to the second round of the competition.

But the former France coach feels after two unsuccessful attempts, Tunisia are ready to make an impact on the tournament.

"In Tunisia everybody expects that the team will go through to the second round because it is the third time that the country has qualified for the World Cup and it is time to go on and get some good results," he said.

"We are here three times in a row so this is the right time go through to the next round. This is the best time for this."

The game also sees a return to the World Cup for Lemerre, who gained notoriety as the man who took then-defending champions France to the finals in South Korea and Japan four years ago and failed to take the team beyond the group stage, the first time that had happened since Brazil in England in 1966.

"The guys now have a very good spirit and are working like a unit," said Lemerre.

"I can't compare this to when I went to the last World Cup with France because we went there as world champions and we had to show we were champions. This time we have to show something different."

Lemerre has gone some way towards repairing his reputation since taking on the position as Tunisia's head coach and the Frenchman has been awarded a new two-year contract before the finals kicked off.

However, he was at pains to stress that the decision to offer him a new deal was not a tactic to improve morale within the squad before the finals.

"This was not only my decision," he said of the contract offer.

"I still trust the president of the federation in Tunisia. My relationship with them has never been false, it was always true with the federation and the Tunisian people, who love football.

"I have a lot of empathy with the Tunisian people and we did not make this decision as part of any strategy."

With Spain and Ukraine completing the group, Lemerre encouraged the Tunisians to focus first on the game against the three-time Asian champions before thinking about the forthcoming matches against the European pair.

"Now we are thinking about the Saudi Arabia game because all the games are different," he said.

"The last game against Ukraine will probably decide if we stay here or if we go home."

The Saudis are likely to go into the game without striker Mohammad Al Anbar, who twisted his ankle in training on Tuesday evening.

The 21-year-old Al Hilal forward is believed to have sustained ligament damage in the incident during the portion of the session that was closed to the public and he was taken directly to hospital for further tests.

Al Anbar is the only injury doubt for the Saudis, who will go into the game against the Tunisians looking to erase the memory of their disastrous start to the 2002 World Cup, when they were humiliated 8-0 by eventual finalists Germany at the Sapporo Dome.

The Group H encounter will mark the start of Saudi captain Sami Al Jaber's fourth World Cup campaign and the former Wolves striker is confident his team will not make the same mistakes as they did four years ago.

"The atmosphere in the team is very different to how it was in Japan," he said.

"Then our preparations were not good, there were problems on the technical side and with the players but this group is better and we are determined not to make the same mistakes.

"It will be a difficult game. Tunisia are a good team, one of the best in Africa, and they have many good players, and even though the game is between two Arab teams you will not see a typical Arab game. The game will be played at a European level."

Midfielder Mohammed Noor, however, is confident the Saudis can claim three points against the North African side.

"We don't have a lot of information on the Tunisian national team but we know their clubs very well because we have played against them in many Arab competitions," he said.

"So I know we are better than them."