Yasin Ayari, Alexander Isak, Viktor Gyokeres and Mattias Svanberg were on target as Sweden overwhelmed the North Africans in the Group F fixture in Monterrey, Mexico.
Ayari, whose father was born in Tunisia, broke the deadlock at Monterrey Stadium with a brilliant drive from outside the box before Isak made it two following a delightful turn and pass from strike partner Gyokeres.
Lamouchi’s side got themselves back into the game when Omar Rekik glanced home Hannibal Mejbri’s glorious delivery for his first international goal.
However, the second half belonged to Sweden who saw Isak, and Arsenal forward Gyokeres score to make it 4-1 before Mattias Svanberg doubled the advantage moments after coming on, and Ayari sealed the emphatic victory.
Lamouchi was left frustrated at the final whistle while admitting his side could not recover after committing mistakes which allowed Sweden to run away with the victory.
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Tunisia committed many mistakes
“It’s a difficult loss. It's painful,” said Lamouchi as quoted by FIFA.com after the game. “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.”
Sweden coach Graham Potter praised the victory to individual players in his squad while admitting his side was not perfect enough.
“Individually, of course, they (Isak and Gyokeres) are top players but I think together they can be a real threat. I think they’ll get better and better the more they play; they complement each other very well,” said Potter.
“I’m really pleased with the players. We know the quality of the individuals in the front positions but they needed a team to function. We weren’t perfect; we knew we wouldn’t be. But at the start of the game I thought we had good control.”
Tunisia to face Japan next
Tunisia have qualified for the FIFA World Cup seven times (1978, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2018, 2022, and 2026). Despite making the tournament finals, they have never advanced past the group stage.
However, they hold a proud place in history as the first African and Arab nation to win a World Cup match.
During the 2022 edition in Qatar, Tunisia produced a spirited campaign, holding Denmark to a 0-0 draw and suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat to Australia. The Carthage Eagles then achieved one of the biggest upsets of the tournament by defeating the defending champions, France, 1-0.
Despite the historic win, they were eliminated on goal difference.
Tunisia will now strive to win their remaining two matches to stand a chance of qualifying for the group stages. They will next face Japan on June 21st, before concluding their group fixtures against the Netherlands on June 25th.
