MEXICO CITY: Tunisia have sacked head coach Sabri Lamouchi after their opening World Cup 2026 defeat by 5-1 against Sweden in Sunday’s Group F tie in Monterrey. This was the earliest sacking at any World Cup.

The 54-year-old took training on Monday but the Tunisian FA later confirmed that the Frenchman’s contract has been terminated by “mutual agreement”. Former Morocco and Saudi Arabia manager Herve Renard has been appointed head coach of the side until the end of the tournament.

Tunisia sacked manager Henryk Kasperczak after a poor start during their 1998 World Cup campaign, when the side failed to win either of their first two matches.

Cha Bum-kun was dismissed by South Korea during the same tournament after defeats in their first two matches, while Julen Lopetegui was sacked by Spain two days before the start of the 2018 World Cup after agreeing to become Real Madrid manager.

Lamouchi, the former Nottingham Forest boss, was appointed only in January, replacing Sami Trabelsi who left his role following a last-16 defeat by Mali at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Speaking after the defeat by Sweden, Lamouchi said the loss was “painful”. “Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult,” Lamouchi said. “We made too many mistakes, and this is not something that we can do. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, we are hurting ourselves.”

Lamouchi won just one of his five games as Tunisia head coach – a 1-0 victory over Haiti in his first game in charge. In their two warm-up games for the World Cup earlier this month, they lost 1-0 to Austria before suffering a 5-0 thrashing by Belgium. Tunisia face Japan and Netherlands in their remaining Group F fixtures.

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