Rafa Benitez is facing the sack just six months after taking over at Real Madrid.

Directors of the Spanish club have been consulting throughout Monday after Madrid failed to beat Valencia on Sunday evening.

Club president Florentino Perez has called a board meeting for Monday afternoon which will be followed by a press conference at 4.30pm.

The expectation is that Benitez will be dismissed with Zinedine Zidane stepping up from the B-team to take control of first team affairs until the end of the season.

Perez remains a huge fan of Jose Mourinho and the former Chelsea manager remains an option but the president is understood to prefer Zidane taking over with immediate effect.

Mourinho would remain an option for the Spanish giants at the end of the season if the Zidane experiment fails.

Benitez has been unable to win any of Madrid’s big away games so far this season with Villarreal, Sevilla and Barcelona all beating them and Atletico Madrid, Valencia and PSG all taking a point.