Solari’s full-time tenure at Real off to nightmarish start

EIBAR: Real Madrid succumbed to a stunning 3-0 defeat at Eibar as Santiago Solari’s reign as permanent head coach got off to a torrid start on Saturday.

Having taken over from the sacked Julen Lopetegui following the 5-1 Clasico drubbing at the hands of Barcelona, Solari showed early promise with four wins from four in his interim tenure before he was handed a long-term deal.

Gonzalo Escalante’s scrappy opener saw Madrid fall behind for the first time under Solari, and the writing was on the wall with quickfire goals early in the second period through Sergi Enrich and Kike.

After 15 minutes of frenetic action, Eibar broke the dead- lock as Barca loanee Marc Cucurella surged down the left and squared for Kike. His attempt was brilliantly kept out by Courtois but Escalante managed to bundle the ball home from inside the six-yard box.

Early in the second half, Real’s woes worsened.

Toni Kroos played a poor pass across the defence to Alvaro Odriozola, who dallied on the ball, allowing Cucurella to steal in and tee up Enrich for a low finish inside the left-hand post of the goal.

Five minutes later, the game was effectively put beyond a desperate Madrid as Cucurella whipped in a low cross that took a touch off Enrich and ran perfectly for Kike to tap into an empty net from five yards to seal Eibar’s first ever league win over Real Madrid.

REAL DENY RAMOS DOPING ALLEGATION

MADRID: Real Madrid denied on Friday allegations their captain Sergio Ramos breached antidoping regulations on the night of the 2017 Champions League final.

According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, Ramos failed to declare he had taken dexamethasone ahead of the match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, in which Real beat Juventus 4-1.

In a statement released on Friday night, the European champions said that Ramos “has never breached the antidoping control regulations” and that UEFA “closed the matter immediately”, following the “verification of experts from the World Anti-doping Agency, AMA, and UEFA itself”.