Regragi swallows his bitterness. Petkovic is the last victim of “homeland complex” at the World Championship.

The match between Algeria and Switzerland in the 2026 World Cup Round of 32 saw the continuation of one of the strangest ironies in the history of the tournament, after Vladimir Petkovic failed to send off his country’s national team, preventing any coach who managed to beat his country’s team in the qualifiers.

According to the statistics of the Spanish specialist “Mr. Cheap”, no coach, regardless of whether he has the citizenship of his original country or acquired it as a result of naturalization, has ever beaten his country in the qualifying rounds of the World Cup.

Petkovic, who was born in Bosnia and has Swiss citizenship and led Algeria against Switzerland, became the sixth coach to attempt to break the rule, but he lost 2-0.

Walid Regraghi, the former coach of the Moroccan national team, felt the bitterness of this complex. The coach, who was born in the city of Corbel-Esson and has French citizenship, lost 0-2 to the national team “Roosters” in the semi-finals of the 2022 championship.

Before Regraghi and Petkovic, the list included Nagy with Sweden against Hungary in 1938, Karl Raban with Switzerland against Austria in 1954, Didin with Peru against Brazil in 1970 and Ricardo La Volpe with Mexico against Argentina in 2006.

The coach of the Portuguese national team, the Spaniard Roberto Martinez, will undergo a new test in the same line-up when he plays his country, Spain, in the strongest round of the 16th round of the current championship next Monday.

Either Martinez will break this history-wide knot, or he will be the seventh victim.

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