Tunisia 0-4 Japan: Ueda at the double as Renard's comeback falls flat in milestone World Cup clash

Herve Renard could not inspire Tunisia to a positive result as Japan cruised to a 4-0 victory at Estadio Monterrey, where Ayase Ueda was on top form.

Tunisia became the first team in World Cup history to change coach after just one matchday, when they sacked Sabri Lamouchi following a 5-1 loss to Sweden.

Yet Renard, who coached Morocco at the 2018 World Cup and Saudi Arabia four years later, did not have the desired impact as Tunisia crashed out with another heavy defeat.

Tunisia's defence was rock-solid through qualifying, yet they have now shipped 14 goals across their last three matches.

In the 1,000th match in World Cup history, Japan got the ball rolling inside four minutes. Keito Nakamura brilliantly got to the byline and cut in a low centre from which Daichi Kamada tucked home, netting his nation's quickest goal in the tournament.

Aymen Dahmen, who replaced Abdelmouhib Chamakh in the Tunisia goal, made a fantastic stop to deny Takehiro Tomiyasu, but Japan had their second when Ueda brilliantly picked out the bottom-left corner from the edge of the box.

Ueda turned from scorer to provider with a deft flick on in the 69th minute – Junya Ito rushing through to slot beyond Dahmen.

And the Feyenoord forward rounded off an emphatic victory late on with a fine, looping header from Kaishu Sano's cross.

Tunisia join Haiti and Turkiye in exiting the tournament after two matches, while Japan are second in Group F heading into their clash with Sweden.

No new coach bounce for torrid Tunisia

Tunisia have won only one of their seven matches against Japan, and they never looked likely to lay a glove on Hajime Moriyasu's team, who were dominant from the off.

Their tally of nine goals conceded is already their worst total at a World Cup, surpassing the eight they shipped in 2018. Tunisia are the fourth country to lose consecutive matches at a single World Cup by 4+ goals, joining Greece (1994), South Korea (1954) and Bolivia (1930).

Renard's appointment made it the fifth time in World Cup history that a team has used more than one coach during a single edition of the competition. In each of those instances, the new coach failed to win their first game in charge (D3 L2).

As poor as Tunisia were – they had only two attempts, worth a combined 0.05 expected goals – Japan were excellent value for their victory.

Kamada became the second Japanese player to score a goal in consecutive World Cup matches, after Junichi Inamoto in 2002.

Ueda is the third Japan player to record both a goal and an assist in the same World Cup match. He joins Takashi Inui (v Senegal in 2018) and Keisuke Honda (v Denmark in 2010).

His second goal then saw him match Cody Gakpo as the only players to have netted twice and provide an assist in a match at this year's tournament so far, and also made Japan the first Asian team to score four goals in a World Cup game.