Tunisia's surprise 2-1 victory over Morocco on Monday has thrown Group C on its head at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

All the preview copy leading up to the tournament assumed that Morocco and Gabon would get out of this pool, with Tunisia and hopeless Niger given little chance.

That might well still be the case, but the Atlas Lions have certainly made it a lot harder on themselves with defeat in their opener against their North African rivals.

It now means that qualification for the quarter-finals is out of their hands; they need to rely on a series of results going their way.

What they must do is win their two remaining games, starting with co-hosts Gabon on Friday and then Niger the following Tuesday.

Coach Eric Gerets was justifiably disappointed with the finishing of his side, who had opportunities to bury the Carthage Eagles. But he is now looking forward and says his side are in a do-or-die situation against Gabon.

"Our second match against Gabon is an all-or-nothing situation," he said. "This is the Nations Cup, it's full of surprises, that's life, now we've got to show the mental strength we've displayed over the past year."

His Tunisian counterpart, Sami Trabelsi, was delighted with his side's showing. Nothing much had been expected of them outside of Tunisia, perhaps the disruption of the Arab Spring had led to the assumption they would not be in the right frame of mind.

But the coach was quick to point out that the team has not yet qualified and there is still work tobe done for the 2004 champions.

"This was a precious victory that will help us. We played well as a team... but the competition is long. This is just one victory, we have lots of matches in front of us," Trabelsi said.

"We were better in defence than -- when you look at the quality of players we have available -- in midfield and in attack."

The final word should be left to Tunisian captain Karim Haggui, who said: "We deserved to win, I hope our new generation of players will write their own history now."