A coaching change after just one World Cup match? Chaos for the Tunisians

World Cup participant Tunisia has apparently fired its coach, Sabri Lamouchi, during the World Cup. According to dpa reports, the federation’s leadership took this action in response to the North Africans’ 1-5 loss in their first tournament match against Sweden.

Ahead of the final two group stage matches against Japan (Sunday, 6:00 a.m./MagentaTV) and the Netherlands (Friday, June 26/ARD and MagentaTV), the experienced Mondher Kbaier is set to take over the team. The 56-year-old previously coached the Tunisian national team from 2019 to 2022 and subsequently worked for the club teams Raja Casablanca in Morocco and Club Africain in Tunis. As the federation’s technical director, Kbaier had already traveled with the team to this World Cup.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Tunisians had defeated eventual finalist France in the group stage. Four years later, however, the opener against Sweden turned into a debacle for the team featuring the two Bundesliga pros Rani Khedira (1. FC Union) and Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Debacle against Sweden

In Monterrey, Mexico, Yasin Ayari (7th/90+6th), Alexander Isak (30th), Viktor Gyökeres (59th), and Mattias Svanberg scored the goals for the Scandinavians. Former Hertha player Omar Rekik scored for Tunisia (43').

“This is a painful defeat. It hurts. It’s tough to start the competition with such a bitter defeat,” Lamouchi said afterward. At that point, the 54-year-old Frenchman had no idea that he was giving what would likely be his last press conference as Tunisia’s coach.

Lamouchi had taken on this role just five months earlier, in January of this year. In the five international matches of his brief tenure, there was only one victory, against World Cup underdog Haiti (1-0).

A difficult squad

Even before the World Cup began, Tunisian media were reporting on a team that was difficult to manage, one in which experienced and newly recruited players struggled to gel and in which Lamouchi’s predecessor repeatedly delayed the necessary overhaul. Even last winter’s Africa Cup of Nations ended with a disappointing exit in the round of 16 against Mali.

During his playing career, Lamouchi himself was a technically gifted player who, among other clubs, played for AS Monaco, AC Parma, Inter Milan, and Olympique Marseille. But he had already faced a lot of bad luck at some of his previous coaching posts.

Bad luck at the 2014 World Cup

The Frenchman led the Ivory Coast to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. After an opening win against Japan, they were still eliminated in their final group stage match because Greece scored a 2-1 goal in stoppage time.

In 2020, Lamouchi nearly led the historic English club Nottingham Forest to promotion to the Premier League. But then the COVID-19 pandemic struck—and his team completely collapsed after the forced break.

At least Lamouchi didn’t experience the fastest coaching change at a World Cup. In 2018 in Russia, the Spanish team parted ways with their then-coach Julen Lopetegui just two days before their first match. Negotiations between him and Real Madrid had previously become public knowledge.