Not what the doctor ordered for Sebastian Tounekti and his Tunisia side.
Tounekti was used to a lot of drama at Celtic during the recent campaign, but it has continued now he is at the World Cup, and all for the wrong reasons.
Over the weekend, Tunisia were battered by Sweden in their World Cup opener, with Tounekti coming off the bench without making an impact.
It has resulted in Tunisia coach Sabri Lamouchi being sacked, as their World Cup campaign has been thrown into turmoil just as it has begun, and Tounekti has claimed that the players are ‘angry’ on behalf of the fans.
“To be honest, just really sad and angry for all of the fans,” said Tounekti “For us, we really hope that we were on a higher level against Sweden. Unfortunately, we weren’t.”
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🚨 A lot of off-field noise around it 🚨
Sebastian Tounekti pulls no punches as Tunisia lose their World Cup opener to Sweden
Lamouchi opted to leave many of his attacking players on the bench against Sweden, including Tounekti, as he deployed a very defensive system.
That was part of his downfall, including losing two warm-up games against ten-man Austria and conceding five to Belgium – once again, Celtic’s winger didn’t start any of those games.
In the end, Lamouchi lasted only five matches after being appointed in January.
The timing makes it a particularly brutal dismissal. Many will naturally wonder what the actual benefit is when Tunisia are almost certainly down to their final two games.
Regardless of the circumstances, Celtic’s 2025 summer signing pulled no punches in the mixed zone after the match, declaring that the way events unfolded was simply unacceptable.
“To be honest, just really sad and angry for all of the fans,” said Tounekti
“For us, we really hope that we were on a higher level against Sweden. Unfortunately, we weren’t.
“We got punished by a really, really strong team with world-class players everywhere on the pitch. We had expectations to be better.
“I just have to apologise to everyone who came to the stadium and everyone who watched that game.”
What’s next for Tounekti?
There is a distinct Celtic flavour to Group F.
With Benjamin Nygren having already secured club bragging rights, the spotlight now turns to Sunday’s 05:00 GMT showdown between Tunisia and Japan, where we could see a direct face-off between Celtic attackers Tounekti and Daizen Maeda.
Maeda started Japan’s 2-2 draw against the Netherlands, so there is no reason why he doesn’t keep his place against a broken Tunisia.
And with Tunisia changing managers, it probably opens the door for Tounekti to start their next World Cup game before facing off against the Netherlands on June 26.
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