RB Leipzig sack coach Tedesco after Shakhtar thrashing

Domenico Tedesco was fired by German side RB Leipzig on Wednesday, a day after a 4-1 home thrashing by Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening Champions League group match.

It comes months after he led them to German Cup success but a dreadful start to their league campaign has yielded five points from five matches in the Bundesliga.

“RB Leipzig have parted company with Domenico Tedesco with immediate effect,” the club tweeted.

Even before Tuesday’s humiliation, there were rumours that Leipzig had lined up former Borussia Dortmund coach Marco Rose.

The Leipzig-born Rose won two Austrian titles with sister club Red Bull Salzburg.

Italy-born Tedesco, 36, only took over last December when Leipzig sacked American Jesse Marsch after a poor run of results which left them 11th in the table, seven points off Champions League qualification.

Tedesco turned their fortunes around, guiding them to a Champions League spot, the Europa League semi-finals and their maiden domestic trophy, beating Freiburg on penalties in the German Cup final.  

However, a 4-0 defeat away at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday and the Shakhtar result proved to be the breaking point.

Leipzig, who spent big in the summer bringing in former Chelsea striker Timo Werner, had been tipped to challenge for the title. 

Leipzig CEO Oliver Mintzlaff said on Wednesday the “decision to release Domenico Tedesco was very difficult for us.”

“We played a successful second half of the season with Domenico last year. 

“We won our first major title with the DFB Cup and thus played the most successful season in our young club’s history.

“We came to the conclusion that we need new impetus. 

“We regret that we are now parting ways and would like to expressly thank Domenico Tedesco and his team for a job well done.”