Mohamed Moncer scored his first international goal but Heldon responded with a penalty as Tunisia and Cape Verde Islands played to a 1-1 draw in their opening African Nations Cup Group B clash at the Nuevo Estadio de Ebebiyín on Sunday.
Cape Verde had the better of the opening period, but having ridden their luck to go into the break goalless, the north Africans took the lead with a neat move finished by Moncer at the back-post.
But the lead lasted just seven minutes as Heldon won and then converted a penalty to earn his side a very good point.
Tunisia enjoyed most of the possession in the first half, but by far the better chances fell to Cape Verde, who will wonder how they went into the break still at 0-0.
It started inside two minutes when defender Fernando Verela crashed a header from a free kick against the post with Tunisia goalkeeper Aymen Mathlouthi rooted to the spot.
It would have been a sweet moment for the defender, who was the player deemed ineligible and suspended by CAF when Cape Verde were dumped out of the World Cup qualifiers despite beating Tunisia 2-0 to top their pool.
Tunisia's best chance of the half came on 16 minutes as Ahmed Akaichi got a header on target that was beaten away by Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha.
From then on in the opportunities fell to Cape Verde. After Kuca had forced a good save from Mathlouthi, Heldon broke down the right and provided a superb low cross for Djaniny 12 yards out, but his shot was straight at the keeper.
Djaniny's floated cross in search of Kuca then almost drifted in at the back post before Cape Verde got a free kick right on the edge of the Tunisian penalty-box after a foul on Heldon.
Although the player fell into the area, it the first contact was clearly outside the box and it was a good decision from Gabonese referee Eric Castane. Kuca fired wide after the free-kick rebounded off the wall.
Kuca then had an excellent chance to break the deadlock soon after halftime when he was played into space on the left-hand side of the box, but his effort was saved off the line by Syan Ben Yousseff with goalkeeper Mathlouthi beaten.
Tunisia then had a great chance to take the lead at the other end and can feel aggrieved they did not.
A long free-kick into the box saw Yassine Chikhaoui hit the crossbar with a header. The ball was bundled into the net from the rebound, but referee Castane pulled play back for a foul that was hard to spot.
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Tunisia were dictating the play by now and after Aymen Abdennour went close from a free kick, they did get the lead their play deserved.
The ball found its way to Moncer at the back post and blasted into the roof of the net from a tight angle to score his first international goal.
The lead was short-lived though as Ben Yousseff brought a speeding Heldon to the ground for a clear penalty that was converted by the Sporting Lisbon forward with some aplomb.
