The Tunisian Football Association has announced that coach Sabri Lamouchi has been fired.
The Frenchman Hervé Renard should be his successor to lead the national team for the rest of the tournament, state television quoted association president Moez Nasri as saying.
Tunisian television reported that night that Lamouchi had left the national team’s headquarters in Mexico after an agreement had been reached to terminate the contract.
Renard is expected to arrive at the team camp promptly to prepare for the second game against Japan on Sunday (CEST).
Renard with successes at the Africa Cup of Nations
The 57-year-old Renard most recently worked as Saudi Arabia’s coach. He already has some experience as a coach of African national teams and led Zambia and Ivory Coast to the Africa Cup of Nations titles. The clear defeat against Sweden was too much for the 54-year-old Lamouchi. Since he was hired as Tunisia’s national coach in January of this year, there had only been one win, a 1-0 win against Haiti.
In preparation for the World Cup, the former French international’s team lost 1-0 against Austria and 5-0 against Belgium in the dress rehearsal. In the remaining two World Cup preliminary round games, Tunisia is under great pressure against Japan and the Netherlands in Group F.