MONACO: Niko Kovac was fired as AS Monaco head coach, with the club lying sixth in Ligue 1 at the mid-season break.
Although Monaco have won three of their past four league games, a poor start to the season and a failure to qualify for the Champions League via the August play-offs cost Kovac his job on Saturday.
The 50-year-old Croatian's side lost 3-2 on aggregate to Shakhtar Donetsk, despite leading the second leg 2-0 at halftime in Ukraine.
Monaco are four points adrift of second-place Nice and third-place Marseille in the Champions League spots for next season.
Kovac, who was hired in June 2020, also made a slow start with Monaco last season but then transformed the side's fortunes to finish third behind Paris Saint-Germain and champions Lille.
Reserve team coach Stephane Nado will take over in an interim role for Sunday's French Cup game at second-tier Quevilly-Rouen.