José Couceiro is no longer the coach from the Portuguese Football team, Estoril. The coach was sacked following the poor results. The farewell to the helm of the "canaries" was confirmed today in a statement, published on the club official website. With the departure of José Couceiro, Hugo Leal and Fabiano Soares were chosen to manage the team, a solution that Tiago Ribeiro, chairman of the Portuguese club, expect to result. "It's a slightly different model, but both will have a leading role. The solution is to keep for now. We are in transition period, but we have all the faith in this new staff team" said Tiago Ribeiro.
Since the season took off, this is the fifth dismissal in the League, after Ricardo Chéu (Penafiel), Domingos Paciência (Setúbal), Paulo Sérgio (Académica) and Leonel Pontes (Marítimo).
Couceiro came to Estoril with the difficult task of replacing Marco Silva, who came out to Sporting, after two excellent seasons at the club. José Couceiro, 52, has a long career in European football. In Portugal he managed the giants FC Porto and Sporting as well as the historical Setúbal and Belenenses. He was also the Under-21 Portuguese coach, before becoming Lithuania's national coach. He also had positive experiences in Turkish football, at Gaziantepspor, and in Russia, where he managed with great success Lokomotiv Moscow.
Estoril is in 12th place in the First League table with 25 points, only 8 points above the relegation places. It's a disappointing season, after finishing the last championship in 5th position, reaching qualify for the Europe League. The 5 consecutive losses serie (against Rio Ave, Braga, Nacional and Académica) culminated in a heavy 6-0 defeat against Benfica, last Saturday.
During this season, Couceiro, as Estoril manager, reached 40 games, obtaining 12 wins, 12 draws and 16 defeats. Estoril got knocked out of the Portuguese Cup in the first round and of the League Cup in the third stage. In the UEFA Europa League Estoril did not pass the group stage.
