Tunisia Soccer Team Fires Head Coach One Game Into ‘Painful’ 2026 World Cup

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Sabri Lamouchi
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NEED TO KNOW​

• The Tunisian soccer team has a new coach
• One day after the team lost its opening match, Sabri Lamouchi was replaced by Herve Renard
• Renard has coached two other World Cup teams for two other countries

Tunisia has fired its head coach after losing its first match in World Cup action.

Sabri Lamouchi was relieved of his duties on Monday, June 15, one day after Tunisia lost to Sweden, 5-1, in the Group F opener.

Lamouchi, 54, was appointed in January and coached five games, three of which he lost, according to ESPN.

Now at the bottom of Group F, Tunisia will be led by Herve Renard who is set to arrive in Mexico — where the Tunisian team is based — on Tuesday, June 16.

After the loss on Sunday, Lamouchi acknowledged the disappointment.

“It’s a difficult loss. It's painful,” Lamouchi told reporters after the Sweden defeat. “Starting the competition with ⁠this bad of a loss is indeed difficult.”

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Sabri Lamouchi
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He added, “With world-class players that we have in the two Swedish forwards [Gyokeres and Isak], 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.”

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Lamouchi’s firing is not unprecedented: In the 1998 World Cup, three coaches were fired during the tournament, per ESPN.

For Renard, 57, the task at hand will be a challenge: Tunisia still has two more games to play in the group stage — against Japan on Sunday, June 21 before facing the Netherlands on Friday, June 26.

Renard’s new job marks his third men’s World Cup with three different countries. In 2018, he guided Morocco to a group-stage exit and in 2022, he managed Saudi Arabia — who memorably beat Argentina and Lionel Messi — before failing to qualify for the knockout round.

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