World Cup coach sacked after one game and nightmare start to group stage

Tunisia’s French head coach Sabri Lamouchi has been sacked (Picture: Getty)

Tunisia have sacked head coach Sabri Lamouchi in the wake of their disastrous World Cup defeat against Sweden.

The Eagles of Carthage arrived in America with genuine hope of progressing from the group stage, but their chances of qualification lie in ruins after suffering a 5-1 defeat against rampant Sweden.

A series of defensive blunders was capitalised upon by Graham Potters dark horses whose prolific forwards, Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres, gleefully accepted the chances that fell their way.

Brighton’s Yasin Ayari, who had the opportunity to represent Tunisia, rubbed further salt into the wounds with two spectacular goals, while substitute Mattias Svanberg also got on the scoresheet with his very first touch.

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Tunisia are now rank outsiders to advance to the next round given the ultra-competitive nature of Group F, which also includes Japan and Netherlands.

And given the grim outlook, Lamouchi, 54, who has previously coached Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, has has his contract terminated by ‘mutual agreement’.

Reports had claimed Lamouchi was immediately dismissed after the defeat but BBC Sport say he took team training on Monday before the Tunisian Football Association made their decision.

Tunisia were hammered by Sweden (Picture: Getty)

Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak both scored in Sweden’s 5-1 win over Tunisia (Source: Avalon)

Lamouchi has therefore become the first manager in World Cup history to be sacked after just one game.

Former Morocco and Saudi Arabia manager Herve Renard has been appointed head coach of the side until the end of the tournament.

The crestfallen former Monaco midfielder said after the defeat in Monterrey: ‘It’s a difficult loss. It’s painful. Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult.

‘With world-class players that we have in the two Swedish forwards, it’s something that you don’t recover from

‘We made way too many mistakes. We have our pride. We need to react. We need to give a better image.’

Lamouchi was only appointed in January but won just one of his five games in charge of Tunisia.

Tunisia face Japan on Sunday before taking on Netherlands in their final Group F clash the following Friday.

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