He proved to be a perfect caretaker but Santiago Solari’s debut as an official Real Madrid coach turned into a nightmare with a 0-3 defeat at Eibar on Saturday.
Solari had won all of his four games in charge as an interim manager but goals from Gonzalo Escalante, Sergi Enrich and Kike ended the visitors’ shot-spell of winning run condemning them to their fifth defeat in 13 league games.
Madrid remained on sixth with 20 points from 13 games, while Eibar jumped to seventh ahead of the weekend’s other matches. They are on 18 points.
Following a disastrous season-opening under the previous manager Julen Loptegui, Madrid seemed to have found some mojo back under interim coach Solari. But the two-week international break gap and a three-year contract to now permanent manager saw the Los Blancos revert to their old chaotic display that cost former Spain coach Loptegui his job.
Eibar were confident right from the word go with Kike testing Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois just three minutes into the match. But it was Gareth Bale who struck first only for the linesman to pull up the off-side flag.
By then the match had already titled in Madrid’s favour with Karim Benzema also having a shot cleared off the line by Jose Fonte.
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But after surviving the early Madrid onslaught, Eibar produced the goods that mattered. Kike shook the woodwork from 25 yards out with only Courtois’ fingers keeping his side alive but only until 16 minutes.
Marc Cucurella, on loan from Barcelona, initiated a counter-attack following a sloppy Madrid corner and found Kike with a cross, which the striker firing straight Courtois, who saved but Escalante put Eibar ahead from the rebound.
Bale then had a curling free-kick from outside the box saved by Asier Riesga just at the brink of half-time. But things worsened for Madrid when Eibar doubled the lead through Enrich.
Once again it was Cucurella, who found Enrich after dispossessing Alvaro Odriozola, for the striker to romp home in the 52nd minute.
Five minutes later the home side scored their third goal with Cucurella earning his third assist of the night. It was Kike, who scored having beaten Sergio Ramos to get to the end of a cross from the right.
So poor were Madrid that Eibar could have scored two more had Courtois not made some great saves on the evening. The Belgian shot-stopper did brilliantly to palm away a Fabian Orellana shot while Kike fired another wide from close range.