Tunisia sack head coach after heavy defeat in World Cup opener

Tunisia have sacked their head coach Sabri Lamouchi following their opening game of the 2026 World Cup, a heavy 5-1 defeat to Sweden.

A statement on the Tunisian FA Instagram read: "An agreement has been officially reached to dismiss coach Sabri Lamouchi.

"Plans are under way ‌to appoint ‌Mondher Kebaier as the national team ‌coach [on an interim basis]."

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Tunisia play Japan in their second group game on Saturday before facing the Netherlands.

Lamouchi was appointed in January and took charge of just five games. His only win came in a 1-0 victory over Haiti, who started their World Cup campaign against Scotland at the weekend.

The former Nottingham Forest boss was appearing at his second World Cup, having taken charge of Ivory Coast in 2014 where they were knocked out in the group stages.

Lamouchi joins select few to be sacked mid World Cup

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On one hand, this announcement is a shock. No one expects a manager to be sacked during a World Cup. However, those who follow Tunisia closely will know there were reported rumours of discontent when they lost 5-0 to Belgium in their final warm-up game.

Even more incredibly, this is history repeating itself for Tunisia. In 1998, they sacked Henryk Kasperczak after a poor start. He was at least given two games, failing to win them both.

Cha Bum-kun also lost his job with South Korea during the same tournament, while Julen Lopetegui was sacked by Spain just two days prior to the 2018 World Cup after he had been announced as the new Real Madrid boss.

As embarrassing as it may, at least for Lamouchi it's not unprecedented.