Tunisia have sacked head coach Sabri Lamouchi in the wake of their disastrous World Cup defeat against Sweden.
The Eagles of Carthage arrived in America with genuine hope of progressing from the group stage, but their chances of qualification lie in ruins after suffering a 5-1 defeat against rampant Sweden.
A series of defensive blunders was capitalised upon by Graham Potters dark horses whose prolific forwards, Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres, gleefully accepted the chances that fell their way.
Brighton’s Yasin Ayari, who had the opportunity to represent Tunisia, rubbed further salt into the wounds with two spectacular goals, while substitute Mattias Svanberg also got on the scoresheet with his very first touch.
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Tunisia are now rank outsiders to advance to the next round given the ultra-competitive nature of Group F, which also includes Japan and Netherlands.
And given the grim outlook, Lamouchi, 54, who has previously coached Nottingham Forest and Manchester City, has been dismissed immediately.
The crestfallen former Monaco midfidler said after the defeat in Monterrey: ‘It’s a difficult loss. It’s painful. Starting the competition with this bad of a loss is indeed difficult.
‘With world-class players that we have in the two Swedish forwards, 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.’
More to follow…