Tunisia have executed the most abrupt managerial dismissal in World Cup history, sacking Sabri Lamouchi barely 48 hours after a 5-1 demolition by Sweden and immediately appointing Hervé Renard as his replacement. The Tunisian Football Federation confirmed the decision on Monday, making Lamouchi the first head coach ever to lose his job after a single match at the finals. Renard, a 57-year-old Frenchman whose CV includes a famous victory over eventual champions Argentina with Saudi Arabia in Qatar, will take charge for the remaining Group F fixtures against Japan and the Netherlands, with his first training session scheduled in Monterrey on Tuesday.

The scale of the defeat in Guadalupe left federation officials with little room for manoeuvre. Sweden, marshalled by Graham Potter, tore through a disjointed Tunisian defence with goals from Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyökeres and Yasin Ayari among others. Lamouchi, a former France international, had been in post only since January and presided over a dismal run of one win in five matches, with a single goal scored and eleven conceded. Reports from Italian and Spanish outlets describe a chaotic aftermath: senior players are said to have demanded the coach’s removal while still on the pitch, and a heated confrontation allegedly erupted at the team hotel before the federation’s emergency meeting. The official announcement was briefly posted and then deleted, fuelling speculation of a last-minute rethink, before the president of the federation, Moez Nassari, confirmed the change on state television.

Renard arrives as a specialist in tournament salvage operations. Viewed from Latin America, he remains the “executioner of Argentina”, the architect of Saudi Arabia’s 2-1 upset in Lusail that reverberated across the football world. African audiences know him as a two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner with Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire, and as the man who guided Morocco to the 2018 World Cup. European analysts note his recent stint with the France women’s team and a brief, unsuccessful return to Saudi Arabia, but his reputation for galvanising underperforming sides in short timeframes is precisely what Tunis requires. His first test comes on 20 June against a Japan side that drew 2-2 with the Netherlands and already holds a point in the group.

The expanded 48-team format, in which eight of the twelve third-placed sides advance, offers Tunisia a theoretical lifeline that would not have existed in previous editions. Yet the arithmetic is unforgiving: even a draw against Japan would leave the Eagles of Carthage needing a result against the Dutch to avoid early elimination. North African commentators view the move as a desperate but necessary gamble, while Asian observers point to the psychological boost Renard’s arrival may provide. Tunisia have changed coaches mid-tournament before—Henryk Kasperczak was fired after two group-stage defeats in 1998—but never with such dizzying speed. Whether Renard can repeat his Qatari alchemy in the Mexican heat will determine if this upheaval is remembered as a masterstroke or merely the first footnote of a doomed campaign.