The Tunisian team bid farewell to the 2026 World Cup early, after suffering its second loss in a row, falling to Japan 4-0, in the 1,000th match in the history of the World Cup finals, becoming the first Arab team to officially bid farewell to the tournament, after conceding nine goals in the first two matches, in one of its worst participations ever in the history of the World Cup.
The French coach, Hervé Renard, who took over the job a few days ago, succeeding the sacked Sabri Lamouchi, did not succeed in causing the expected positive shock, after the Tunisian team appeared in a modest technical and physical manner, continuing the series of defensive errors that began with the heavy loss to Sweden with a score of 1-5 in the first round.
The Japanese team imposed its control from the first minutes, and succeeded in opening the scoring after only four minutes through Daichi Kamada, before Ayase Ueda added the second goal in the 31st minute, ending the first half with the “Samurai” leading by two unanswered goals.
In the second half, the Japanese advantage continued, and Junya Ito scored the third goal in the 69th minute, before Ueda returned and concluded the quadruple in the 83rd minute, amid a clear offensive deficit for the Tunisian team, which did not succeed in posing any real threat to the Japanese goal throughout the match.
Defensive collapse
The first two matches revealed great suffering for the Tunisian national team on the defensive level, after conceding nine goals, at a rate of 4.5 goals per match, which is an unprecedented number in the history of the “Carthage Eagles” participation in the World Cup. Individual errors and poor defensive positioning increased the national team’s suffering, at a time when the team lacked offensive pressure, appearing far from its known level in major tournaments.
Change without effect
Sabri Lamouchi’s dismissal came after the first loss to Sweden, in an attempt by the Tunisian Federation to correct the course before it is too late, by contracting with Frenchman Hervé Renard, who has extensive experience in international tournaments.
However, the new coach did not have enough time to make technical or mental changes within the group, as the same defensive confusion was reflected in the team’s performance against Japan, so the negative results continued, and the team was officially eliminated from the qualification calculations before the final round.
The last match against the Netherlands became just a confrontation to improve the image, after the Tunisian team lost its hopes of reaching the quarter-finals for the seventh time in the history of its participation in the World Cup.
