Barcelona Fires Coach Ronald Koeman after Poor Start to Season

The loss to Rayo marked the teams fifth away match without a win, something that hadn’t happened to the club in nearly two decades.

Barcelona won five matches and drew three this season under the Dutch coach who took over shortly after the teams embarrassing 8-2 loss to Bayern in the Champions League last year. His only title with the Catalan club was last season’s Copa del Rey.

Koeman had been publicly at odds with Laporta, though the club had recently expressed its support for the coach, including after he was harassed by a small group of fans outside the stadium after the home loss to Madrid last weekend.

Koeman had also upset some of his players after saying Barcelona would not realistically contend for much this season as it continued to deal with serious financial difficulties.

The club also lost Antoine Griezmann to Atletico Madrid and was relying mostly on youngsters who have been hastily promoted from its youth squads.

A replacement to Koeman was not immediately announced.

The teams next match is Saturday at home against relegation-threatened Alavs in the Spanish league.

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