Sabri Lamouchi has been relieved of his duties after his Tunisia side were subject to a 5-1 drubbing by Sweden in the first match of their 2026 World Cup campaign.
Lamouchi, a former head coach for the Ivory Coast, Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City, was appointed in January but has won just one of his five matches since.
Tunisia faced Sweden in Monterrey to open their World Cup campaign but fell to a humiliating defeat, with Yasian Ayari bagging a brace and Premier League stars Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres joining him on the scoresheet.
And, with their campaign already on the brink, Tunisia have moved quickly to steady the ship. According to widespread reports, Lamouchi will be relieved of his duties in the coming hours, with confirmation expected on Monday.
It is not yet clear who would replace him at such short notice, with a second match of the summer against Japan just five days away.
His assistant Michael Hefele, who played as a centre-back for both Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town, may be a convenient option.
Lamouchi’s head was hung low as he reflected on the “painful” Sweden defeat, telling reporters: “It’s a difficult loss.
“Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult.
“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.”
Tunisia have previous with mid-tournament sackings, dispensing with Henryk Kasperczak during the group stage of the 1998 World Cup in France. He was replaced by Ali Selmi, who took charge of their third group stage fixture, with elimination a foregone conclusion after defeats by England and Colombia.
