Benitez hanging on at Real Madrid; Zinedine Zidane next?

4 who came before Benitez at Real also lost their first Clasicos but the amount of pressure on the former Napoli boss is mounting.

“We analyzed the situation and I’m here to announce that Real Madrid’s coach has our full and unequivocal support”, Perez said. We picked a team of top quality and experienced players, but it did not go well. “He has the capacity to make this squad play up to its potential”.

Perez will be making his first public comments since Saturday’s game at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, when fans loudly jeered the president and Benitez during and after the match.

With Lionel Messi only fit enough to start the match on the bench following an eight-week injury lay-off, Barca made light work of Rafa Benitez’s men.

“We need to recover our team quickly, their spirits, for the next game”.

The points will not mean much because Madrid is already through to the next round, but the game certainly will still be crucial for Benitez.

Perez is six years into his second term as president after resigning after six years the first time round when his Galacticos project of signing the world’s most marketable players was deemed to have failed.

Perez also said the team’s results under Benitez have not been bad apart from the last two losses in the Spanish league.

Benitez called for his side to react quickly to a second successive league defeat, this humiliation following the 3-2 reverse to Sevilla a fortnight ago.

Following a board meeting on Monday, club president Florentino Perez said: “He has all our support and confidence”.

Adding the feeling that the vote of confidence was not a ringing endorsement of Madrid’s malaise, he continued: “I’m talking about this moment we are in now, I cannot say what will happen in the future, nobody knows what could happen in six months”.

“The spectators liked what they saw despite the fact that their team was suffering”, Iniesta said when asked bout Ronaldinho’s performance last week. It drew at Atletico Madrid 1-1, then won the next three matches by at least two goals.

By that point the Madrid fans were in open rebellion against their own side with plenty of white handkerchiefs – a symbol calling for the coach’s sacking in Spain – on display.

Zinedine Zidane has dismissed talk of him replacing Rafael Benitez as Real Madrid head coach following the humiliating 4-0 defeat at home to Barcelona. And there have been a few reports that Fabio Capello, who is now without a job, could be the next in line.