With Real Madrid nine points off Barcelona in LaLiga and out of the Copa, only Champions League success will guarantee Santiago Solari's future.
Real Madrid played well on Wednesday night, but came unstuck in both penalty boxes. At one end, they had initially kept Barcelona largely at bay (giving up just one shot before the break, the Catalans' worst first-half tally of the season), only for three goals from three attempts on target to put paid to their hopes. At the other, meanwhile, they fired nothing but blanks all evening (hitting no fewer than 14 shots without success).
Champions League now Solari's only hope of silverware
The consequences were dramatic: Madrid bowed out of the Copa del Rey, the most straightforwardly obtainable trophy available to them this season and, for that reason, Solari's best bet for securing his place in the Bernabéu dugout beyond the summer. Now, after 21 wins, six defeats and two draws, the 42-year-old finds himself in an all-or-nothing situation: only by lifting the Champions League can he guarantee his future.
Just as Zinedine Zidane had before him, Solari made the step-up up from the 'B' team, Casilla, when he was appointed as interim coach in October. After registering four victories from his first four games in charge, it was perhaps this symmetry that contributed to him being rewarded for his promising start with the opportunity to take on the role full time, on a deal running until 2021. However, he struggled to shake off the 'provisional' tag: having strengthened his position with December's Club World Cup win, he weakened it with a January slump that brought a draw and two defeats in the first two weeks of the New Year.
Solari proceeded to recover from that dip by leading the side to their best run of the season, a sequence of seven triumphs and one creditable 1-1 Copa draw at the Camp Nou - a result that left Los Blancos with plenty of optimism going into this Wednesday's return. And justifiably so: Solari's men were combining good performances with good results. But then came an unexpected chill wind that caused that whole house of cards to teeter: the 2-1 home defeat to Girona that all but extinguished their title aspirations.
Madrid then got through their clash at Levante, but this midweek had their Copa hopes dashed by their arch rivals. "That's a strange question. We all responsible for both victories and defeats," Solari replied when asked post-match to assess how much he was to blame for his side's semi-final elimination. But with the domestic cup out of reach, it is the Argentine in particular who now depends on success in the Champions League.