Coach Lamouchi immediately goes home, Tunisia focuses on the fox of the Saudi miracle

Tunisia he sacked the technical commissioner Sabri Lamouchi after the heavy defeat for 5-1 against Sweden in the debut match at World Cup 2026. The Tunisian Football Federation confirmed this, specifying that the contract was terminated “by mutual agreement”. The sacking makes Lamouchi the first coach in World Cup history to lose his job after just one match of the tournament.

After the knockout suffered on Sunday at the Estadio Monterrey in Guadalupe, Mexico, rumors had already emerged regarding the coach’s immediate dismissal. However, according to the BBC, the 54-year-old had regularly directed the team’s training on Monday before the separation was made official. The federation simultaneously announced the arrival of Hervé Renardformer coach of Morocco and Saudi Arabia, who will lead the Tunisian national team until the end of the tournament. Renard is particularly remembered for leading Saudi Arabia to a surprising victory against eventual champions Argentina at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Renard’s profile

The 57-year-old Frenchman is a former defender who retired at 29 with a knee injury and opened a cleaning company while coaching a local team, SC Draguignan. Thanks to his friend Claude Le Roy’s call to China, he became an assistant at Shanghai Cosco, then starting a brilliant international career.

Lamouchi’s path

Lamouchi was appointed in January, replacing The Trabels themselves, resigned after the elimination in the round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations against Mali. His experience on the Tunisian bench ended after just five months. The former Nottingham Forest manager managed just one win in five matches in charge of the “Carthage Falcons”, a 1-0 success against Haiti on his debut. In the preparation matches for the World Cup, Tunisia had also lost 1-0 against Austria and suffered a heavy 5-0 defeat by Belgium.

After the defeat against Sweden, Lamouchi had defined the “painful” result: “Starting the competition with a defeat of this proportion is really difficult. We have made too many mistakes and we cannot afford it. We are hurting ourselves,” he declared.

Other excellent exemptions at the World Cup

In the past other coaches had been sacked during a World Cup, but never after a single match. Tunisia itself had fired Henryk Kasperczak during the 1998 World Championship after a negative start in the first two races. In the same tournament, South Korea had been sacked Cha Bum-kun after two consecutive defeats, while Spain had removed Julen Lopetegui two days before the start of the 2018 World Cup following his agreement with Real Madrid. Tunisia, included in Group F, will now face Japan and then the Netherlands.