BREAKING: Tunisia set to sack Lamouchi after Sweden thrashing | OneFootball

Ollie Whitmore, Chief football news reporter

Tunisia are reportedly set to sack manager Sabri Lamouchi mere hours after being dismantled 5-1 by Sweden in their opening World Cup match, according to talkSPORT.

Yasin Ayari, Alexendar Isak, and Viktor Gyökeres all shone as Blågult – led by former Brighton boss Graham Potter – stormed to a fantastic result, with Tunisia’s only goal to halve the deficit before half time coming from Omar Rekik.

The African side’s significantly inferior goal difference of -4 could put any chance of progressing to the round of 32 as one of the best third-placed teams into serious jeopardy, and it might cost the 54-year-old Frenchman his job.

Journalist Romain Molina has said: “It’s the end for Sabri Lamouchi at the helm of the Tunisian national team.”

Tunisian fans responded to the humiliating defeat to open their Group E campaign, with one labelling it “the worst possible idea” to have Lamouchi at the helm for the 2026 World Cup.

They wrote on social media: “The worst possible idea during the World Cup. We already knew that Lamouchi wasn’t a great tactician and that Tunisia had the level of a U23 national team.

“The real problem is much deeper than that.”

Lamouchi would become only the fifth manager known to have been sacked by World Cup nation mid-tournament, joining former Spain and current Qatar boss Julian Lopetegui, Cha Bum-kun, Carlos Alberto Parreira, and Henryk Kasperczak.

Defeats to England and Colombia that year left the Eagles of Carthage mathematically eliminated with a game to spare in 1998, leading to his sacking by the country’s football federation and caretaker manager Ali Selmi overseeing a 1-1 draw against Romania.

Now, Kasperczak looks set to be the first of two managers to have been dismissed by Tunisia at the World Cup finals, the most of any nation that has competed at the tournament since it began in 1930.

Technical director Mondher Kebaier is expected to take over for the rest of the tournament, including their final two group stage matches against dark horses Japan and the Netherlands, who played out an entertaining 2-2 draw on Sunday evening.