Sevilla fires Montella after 9-match winless run

Vincenzo Montella has been sacked again this season - this time by Sevilla.

The struggling Andalusian outfit dismissed the Italian manager - who was fired by AC Milan earlier in the 2017-18 campaign - on Saturday after going the past nine matches without a win.

Spanish coach Joaquin Caparros replaced Montella with just four La Liga games remaining.

After Montella was appointed in December to succeed Eduardo Berizzo, Sevilla dropped to seventh place in the league table, conceding five goals on three different occasions. A humiliating 5-0 defeat to Barcelona in last weekend's Copa del Rey final was the worst of the results.

Montella was hired for his tiki-taka approach as an Italian tactician with Spanish style of play, and achieved marginal success in the cup competitions. There were important victories in the Champions League and Copa del Rey against Manchester United and Atletico Madrid, respectively, but those seemed to come at the expense of Sevilla's league form.

Once considered a favourite to qualify for the Champions League, Los Rojiblancos are now at risk of dropping out of a European place entirely.

Friday's 2-1 capitulation to 17th-placed Levante was apparently enough for the board to make yet another coaching change.