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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport

Julen Lopetegui ‘virtually sacked’ by Real Madrid as pressure mounts on boss

Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui is still hanging on to his job, but was described as “virtually sacked” by a Spanish radio report on Monday morning.

Lopetegui is without a win in any of the club's last five games, with four defeats in that time as Real went 481 minutes without a goal until Marcelo’s strike against Levante in La Liga at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

Madrid lost that game 2-1 and although Lopetegui held talks with president Florentino Perez after the game and was told he would continue, the writing now appears to be on the wall for the former Spain coach.

Perez is considering his options and could yet remove Lopetegui ahead of Sunday’s Clasico clash against Barcelona at Camp Nou, with Radio MARCA reporting on Monday that the coach is “virtually sacked” as he prepares his Madrid squad for the Champions League clash at home to Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday.

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