Cagliari Sack Walter Mazzarri Amidst Relegation Battle

Cagliari sacked coach Walter Mazzarri on Monday as the Serie A club try to avoid relegation ahead of crunch clashes with their rivals fighting the drop.

In a statement, Cagliari said that Mazzarri had been "relieved of his duties as first-team coach", with Italian media reporting that youth team coach Alessandro Agostini would take charge of the team for the final three games of the season.

Mazzarri, 60, was fired after Saturday's 2-1 home defeat to Verona – the seventh loss in eight matches – left 17th-placed Cagliari with the bottom three breathing down their neck.

Next weekend they travel to Salernitana, who sit just inside the drop zone with a game in hand and will move level on 28 points with the Sardinian team if they beat Atalanta on Monday night.

Genoa are level on points with Salernitana and still have a hope of staying up despite a crushing local derby defeat to Sampdoria at the weekend.

Cagliari's final match of the season is against bottom team Venezia, who are six points from safety but also have a game in hand.