Barcelona sack Head Coach after disastrous Champions League defeat against Bayern

Spanish club Barcelona has sacked head coach Quique Setien after the side endured a trophy-less 2019-20 season.

“The Board of Directors have agreed that Quique Setien is no longer the first-team coach,” the club said in a statement.

The decision comes after the club suffered a disastrous 8-2 defeat against Bayern Munich on Friday in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

“This is the first decision within a wider restructuring of the first team which will be agreed between the current technical secretary and the new coach, who will be announced in the coming days,” it added.

Barcelona was defeated by Real Madrid in the 2019-20 La Liga race and shortly after, the side had to face hiding against Bayern.

The match against Bayern was the first time that Barcelona conceded four goals in the first half of a Champions League fixture. Setien is the second Barcelona head coach to be sacked this year.

The writing was on the wall for the former Real Betis boss after their Champions League quarter-final exit.

Setién himself had replaced another sacked manager back in January this year, Ernesto Valverde,with the latter being sacked following a loss to Atletico Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana despite being at the top of La Liga at the time. Setien however didn’t manage to win any trophy for the “Blaugrana” during this season, getting knocked out of the Champions League and finishing La Liga second behind Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid.

It’s the second coach of a major European football club being fired in less than two weeks after Juventus FC dismissed Maurizio Sarri following another shocking Champions League elimination, suffered by the Italian club against french team Olympique Lyonnaise.

The new coach will be announced in the coming days as part of a wide ranging restructuring of the first team.

Quique Setién came to Barça as coach on 13 January of this year. During his seven months in charge the Cantabrian coached the first team in 25 matches: 19 in the league, three in the Champions League and three in the Copa del Rey.

The breakdown of his results was 16 wins, four draws and five defeats.

In addition to sacking Setién, the club have also announced that they will hold presidential elections in March next year,with Josep Maria Bartomeu having come under fire following the club’s recent failures both on and off the pitch.

Reports regarding Lionel Messi’s future have swirled in the aftermath of the club’s humiliation, with the Argentine star said to be unhappy with the overall structure of Barcelona as things stand.

Former Blaugrana defender and current Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman is the favourite to take over at Camp Nou, having been spotted in the Catalan capital on Sunday.