Week 1 of World Cup has already produced shocking news, from the most viral to the most stunning, like seeing something that almost never happens at this stage: a coach is fired in the middle of the tournament. It happened with Tunisia's coach Sabri Lamouchi, fired immediately after his team lost 5-1 to Sweden, making him the first coach to be fired after just one match in World Cup.
It is also rare to see a coach being fired during the tournament, with one of the other precedents also being from Tunisia, Henryk Kasperczak, fired after two matches in the 1998 World Cup, as well as South Korea's Cha Bum-Kun, also fired after two matches in 1998.
According to Tunisian football analyst Islam Bouafif, Lamouchi made "one of the biggest managerial disaster classes", lining 5 defenders and 5 midfielders, benching all of his forwards, and mismanaged the changes, placing a midfielder in wing-back, a left winger in the right and took out all defensive midfielders for attackers.
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Hervé Renard confirmed as new coach for Tunisia
The sacking was reported on Monday afternoon, and it was officially confirmed on Tuesday morning with a statement that confirms the new manager, Hervé Renard. The French coach, former manager of Saudi Arabia for two years (he was expected to continue into this World Cup but was fired on April) as well as the French Women's National team, Morocco, and Zambia, will take over immediately on Tuesday morning, arriving to Mexico, where the team is based.
Next for Tunisia is Japan (Sunday, June 21, 6:00 CEST, 5:00 BST) and Netherlands (Friday, June 26, 1:00 CEST).