Spanish media: UCL clash against Man City might be Xabi Alonso's last chance

Spainish Media El Mundo reveals that Real Madrid's top executives stayed in Chamartín until the early hours after shock Celta defeat debating whether to sack their head coach.

After divided opinions, it appears the clash against Manchester City will be his final chance. The club's board, with one eye already on the coaching market, has Zinedine Zidane and Jürgen Klopp as the clear favourites.

Real Madrid's 0-2 home defeat to Celta Vigo — combined with an appalling display (no fight for the first hour, total meltdown at the end, no football throughout) — has left Xabi Alonso in an extremely critical position.

According to sources close to this newspaper, the club's top executives met for several hours after the game in the Chamartín offices to decide whether the coach would continue or not. 

Just one win in the last five La Liga matches has turned a five-point lead over Barcelona into a four-point deficit in little more than a month. The conclusion of the meeting, which lasted well past 1 a.m.

Wednesday's Champions League clash against Manchester City is Xabi Alonso’s last chance. The relationship between the dressing room and the coach is irreparably broken… and Real Madrid has already begun sounding out the coaching market. The two leading candidates: Zinedine Zidane and Jürgen Klopp.Dismissing the Basque coach was discussed more seriously than at any point this season. Some directors wanted to sack him immediately on Sunday night, before facing Guardiola’s side.

Dressing-room relationship irreparably broken

In the end, the decision was to give him until Wednesday, but the search for replacements began that very night. It is an open secret that a significant part of the squad is completely against the manager — an unsustainable situation at Real Madrid.

Alonso's post-match press conference did not help: "You can have a bad game at home," he said, partly blaming Militao's injury. Those comments went down very badly upstairs. When asked if he still felt strong enough to continue, he replied "Of course." To the direct question "Are you playing for your job on Wednesday?" he answered firmly: "We're playing for three points."The night ended in chaos: two sendings-off, a third player (Endrick) also expelled from the bench, and a team completely lost to refereeing complaints.Alonso was scathing about referee Alejandro Quintero:"His decisions drove us mad… Fran's red card, then constant time-wasting with no warnings, he was far too lenient… He threw us completely off." The only reaction came after going down to ten men; only then did the team show fight. As Alonso admitted: "We only pressed and ran when we were one man down… We're angry, and we understand the fans are too. This is everyone's responsibility."