Roger Lemerre hopes to complete a remarkable personal journey on Saturday by erasing his World Cup misery with France in 2002 thanks to a resounding triumph with Tunisia at the 2004 African Nations Cup.
Lemerre, who was in charge of France's ill-fated defence of their world title and paid for the failure with his job, is just 90 minutes away from adding the African title to the 2000 European title he won with France before the whole adventure went sour.
"The African Nations Cup has been as much a challenge for me as it has the Tunisian national team," admitted the Frenchman.
However, standing in his way are two mighty obstacles - opponents Morocco and a fickle Tunisian public who booed Lemerre and his team when they played out a drab 0-0 draw against their Maghreb neighbours at the end of last year.
Fans here are desperate for success having never been able to celebrate an African Nations Cup title unlike Morocco who won in 1976.
Like Lemerre, Morocco coach Badou Zaki has also had to battle critics who denounced his reliance on foreign-based players and ignoring local talent.
However, he has been vindicated with his stylish team beating Nigeria in their opening match and then demolishing Mali 4-0 in the semi-final to book their place in the title showdown, the first ever between two north African sides.
"I have a young team who play as a unit rather than individuals," said Zaki, who has brought out the best in the likes of Youssef Hadji and Marouane Chamakh.
However, both sides have endured nervous moments.
Morocco needed a goal in the fourth minute of injury-time to pull themselves level with Algeria in the quarter-finals before racing to victory in extra-time while Tunisia were just eight minutes from elimination in their semi-final against Nigeria.
They were saved by skipper Khaled Badra's penalty which cancelled out Jay Jay Okocha's spot-kick. Tunisia didn't need a second invitation and booked their place in Saturday's final via the penalty shoot-out.
Lemerre says he has never doubted his team's powers of recovery and wouldn't be surprised if there is a similar scenario at a packed 60,000-capacity Rades stadium on Saturday.
"Against Nigeria, we still had twenty minutes to equalise," said the Frenchman.
"The statistics show that 85-percent of our goals are scored in the closing 15 minutes."
Meetings between these two sides rarely serve up goal feasts and so Saturday's match could well be decided by a flash of inspiration from either Tunisia's Brazilian import Silva dos Santos or Hadji, both of whom have three goals in the tournament.
"Lemerre is one of the best coaches I know. His style and way of training have brought a lot to the team," said Santos.
Hadji believes team spirit will carry Morocco, who are also bidding to host the 2010 World Cup, through to the title.
"It's a great achievement," said the Bastia player. "We have done it with style."
African Nations Cup Final
Saturday
At Tunis
Tunisia v Morocco