Real Madrid have endured a turbulent time on and off the field since beating Liverpool in last season’s Champions League final.
Here, Press Association Sport looks at their timeline of woe.
May 31: Five days after victory in Kiev, Zinedine Zidane, having guided the club to three successive Champions League titles, announces he is standing down.
June 12: Real spark a row with the Royal Spanish Football Federation by announcing Spain national team boss Julen Lopetegui will take over as their coach after the World Cup. The RFEF responds by sacking Lopetegui the following day and he takes up the Bernabeu post immediately.
July 10: Five-time world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo, scorer of a remarkable 450 goals in 438 appearances for Real, quits the Bernabeu for Juventus in a deal worth around £100million.
August 15: Lopetegui’s reign gets off to a losing start as they are beaten 4-2 by city rivals Atletico Madrid in the European Super Cup match in Tallinn.
September 15: After opening their LaLiga campaign with three successive wins, Real drop their first points of the season as they require an Isco equaliser to claim a 1-1 draw at Athletic Bilbao.
September 26: Real’s season takes a dramatic downturn as they are thrashed 3-0 at Sevilla, the start of a dismal run of five defeats in seven games in all competitions.
October 6: A 1-0 defeat at Alaves sees Real fail to score for a fourth successive game.
October 20: Real are beaten 2-1 at home by Levante and reports begin to circulate that Lopetegui is facing the sack.
October 28: Real are thrashed 5-1 by Barcelona, with Luis Suarez scoring a hat-trick. It proves the final straw for Lopetegui, who is sacked the following day.
November 24: After overseeing four successive wins as caretaker boss, Lopetegui’s replacement Santiago Solari suffers a 3-0 defeat at Eibar in his first match in permanent charge.
December 12: Real suffer their heaviest home defeat in Europe as they are beaten 3-0 by CSKA Moscow in the Champions League. They still progressed to the last 16 as group winners, however.
