Real Madrid confirm sacking of Julen Lopetegui as first team coach

MADRID -- Real Madrid sacked coach Julen Lopetegui on Monday night following a poor start to the season, the club confirmed in a press release.

The former Spain national team boss lost his job just over 24 hours after his side suffered a 5-1 humiliation to FC Barcelona in the Camp Nou Stadium to continue the poor run of results over the past month.

Sunday was Real Madrid's fourth defeat in 5 Liga Santander games and they currently lie in ninth place in the Spanish domestic league with 14 points from 10 matches.

Taking Champions League matches into account, Real Madrid have lost five of their last 7 games in all competitions and although last Tuesday they beat Viktoria Plzen 2-1 in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, they were booed off the pitch after conceding a late goal and holding on for the final whistle.

The press release highlights what the club considers to be "a great disproportion between the quality of the squad which has 8 players nominated for the next Balon D'Or... and the results obtained to this date."

The Club's Head of Institutional Relations, Emilio Butragueno, was quick to support Lopetegui on Tuesday, but tellingly failed to back the coach following Sunday's defeat and Lopetegui's sacking was confirmed following a 7pm meeting of the Real Madrid Board of Directors.

Lopetegui had been in charge at Real Madrid for just over 4 months after accepting the offer to coach the club just three days before Spain's opening game at the 2018 World Cup finals.

He had previously signed an agreement to extend his contract with the Spanish national team until the end of the 2020 European Championships and the Spanish Football Federation reacted to the news of his agreement with Madrid by sacking him on the eve of Spain's World Cup campaign and replacing him with Fernando Hierro.

Shortly after Lopetegui's arrival at Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo left to join Juventus and the club failed to sign a big-name replacement for the Portuguese striker. The only new faces this summer were 18-year-old Vinicius Jr, right back Alvaro Odriozola, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and striker Mariano Diaz.

Ronaldo's departure robbed Lopetegui of his side's main source of goals, but it was expected that the loss of the Portuguese forward would promote greater team play allowing Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema to take on extra responsibility.

Although Real Madrid lost the European Supercup to Atletico Madrid, early signs were positive as they kicked off the league with an easy win at home to Getafe, scored 4 goals in Girona and 4 more at home to Leganes.

A 3-0 victory against Roma was the high-point of the campaign, but after a narrow win over Espanyol, the goals dried up with the side going 8 hours without hitting the target. Although Marcelo ended the drought nine days ago, his goal was merely a compensation in a 2-1 defeat to Levante, which piled the pressure on Lopetegui.

Tuesday's narrow win over Plzen did nothing to restore his credit, meaning Sunday's match in the Camp Nou would decide Lopetegui's fate in the most emphatic fashion.

Real Madrid's B-team coach Santiago Solari will take charge of the team for Wednesday's Copa del Rey tie away to third tier side Melilla.