Despite guiding his side to a win in midweek, Julen Lopetegui reportedly remains under pressure as Real Madrid are ready to replace him with Antonio Conte.
Los Blancos ended a nightmare run of five games without a win on Tuesday night, as they secured a 2-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League.
It came after defeats to Sevilla, CSKA Moscow, Alaves and Levante, while Lopetegui saw his side score just one goal in that run of fixtures which unsurprisingly piled the pressure on him.
Unfortunately for the Spanish tactician, it doesn’t appear as though the win over Plzen has given him much of a reprieve, as Corriere dello Sport note that Conte has been contacted by Real Madrid and he is now ready to take on the job.
Having enjoyed success at Juventus, Chelsea and as Italy boss, the Italian tactician is an established and experienced option and one who could bring organisation and a ruthless winning mentality to the Real Madrid squad.
That’s arguably been missing so far this season as they’ve struggled to maintain the level set in previous years under Zinedine Zidane, while the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo this past summer has also unsurprisingly hit them hard.
With that in mind, it was always seemingly going to be a difficult task for Lopetegui, and with El Clasico fast approaching this weekend, it remains to be seen how much longer he keeps his job with Conte ready to take his place, as per the report above.
Defeat against Barcelona on Saturday would surely raise serious question marks and could spell the end for him at the Bernabeu…