Real Madrid has sacked coach Julen Lopetegui after just two months in charge with the side ninth in La Liga following a humiliating defeat to Barcelona.
The 5-1 El Clasico defeat at Camp Nou Sunday proved the final straw for Lopetegui, who was dismissed from his position as Spain coach on the eve of the World Cup after agreeing to take charge of Real for the start of the 2018/2019 season.
An official club statement thanked Lopetegui for his efforts but said the decision "aims to change the dynamics of the first team, when all the objectives of this season are still achievable."
Santiago Solari, the Real Madrid B coach, will take over on an interim basis. The club gave no indication of who they would appoint permanently.
Under Lopetegui, Los Blancos has won just four out of 10 league games and suffered a Champions League defeat to CSKA Moscow.
Zinedine Zidane left his role as Real boss in May this year having led his former club to nine trophies in a two-and-a-half year spell, including three consecutive European titles.
A disconsolate Julen Lopetegui looks on as his Real Madrid side slips to defeat at the Nou Camp.
With Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Juventus in August, goals have been difficult to come by for the Spanish outfit, which at one point this season went four games without scoring.
Meanwhile in an interview with France Football, Ronaldo has talked in detail about his decision to leave Real for Juventus.
"He only ever looked at me as a business relationship," Ronaldo told the French football magazine, referring to club president Florentino Perez. "I know it. What he told me never came from the heart.
"I felt it inside the club, especially from the president, that they no longer considered me the same way that they did in the start," he said. "In the first four or five years there, I had the feeling of being 'Cristiano Ronaldo.' Less afterwards.
"The president looked at me through eyes that didn't want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable to them, if you know what I mean."
Cristiano Ronaldo said club president Florentino Perez was a factor behind his decision to leave.
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The Juventus striker also said his move to Juventus hadn't been motivated for financial reasons.
"If it had all been about money, I'd have moved to China, where I would have earned five times as much than here [at Juventus] or at Real," said Ronaldo.
"I did not come to Juve for the money. I earned the same in Madrid, if not more. The difference is that, at Juve, they really wanted me. They told me that and made it clear. They showed me that."
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