The future of Real Madrid’s manager, Rafael Benitez is up in the sky as speculations over his future intensifies, after watching his team threw away their lead twice against Valencia to finish the game with a 2-2 draw.
The result turn the heat on the former Liverpool and Chelsea manager and weakened his position so much that, for many, he’s a dead man walking.
A late equaliser from Valencia’s Spanish striker, Paco Alcacer cancelled out Real’s lead, which came from a Gareth Bale strike a minute earlier in the 82nd minute.
The visitors were the first to take the lead at Metsala courtesy of the first half strike from Karim Benzema in the 16th minute, but that was also cancelled out just before the interval by a penalty from Daniel Parejo.
In a chaotic and eventful game, Real had Mateo Kovacic sent off for a bad tackle on Joao Cancelo seconds after Cristiano Ronaldo had a penalty appeal turned down.
Both sides also had late chances to snatch victory in a frantic finish. The result meant Real missed the chance to move above Barcelona into second in the Primera Division and Gary Neville is still looking for his first league victory at Valencia, although his side performed with credit.
For Benitez, who had also managed at Valencia before joining Liverpool the results puts him under considerable pressure and speculations are growing that he will be shown the door to be replaced by former Real manager Jose Mourinho, who recently parted company with Chelsea.
It’s reported Real’s President Florentino Perez is huge fan of Mourinho and admitted he envisage seeing the return of the Special one to Madrid and with the results on the pitch continues to falter, Benitez could be out sooner than expected.
Real Madrid has a ruthless and stacked record for firing managers and in the past wasted no time to sack managers, even those who had delivered glory to club like Carlo Ancelotti who got sacked despite winning the club it’s coveted 10th Champions league trophy (La Decima) in 2013, and certainly they will not waste time to get rid of their former youth team coach.
In fact last week, Spanish football expert Guillem Ballague is quoted to have confirm Mourinho is Perez’s favourite choice, despite being aware that the former Chelsea manager still has too many enemies in the squad. He has, however, found out that the squad would back Zinedine Zidane as a manager, were he to get rid of Rafa, which effectively puts Zidane as the new favourite even for the short term.
