Soccer: Torino sack Mihajlovic

(ANSA) - Turin, January 4 - Torino on Thursday sacked Sinisa Mihajlovic as coach after a 2-0 defeat to Juventus in the Italian Cup quarter-finals.
    Ex Napoli, Inter and Watford boss Walter Mazzarri signed a contract replacing him, lasting until the end of June 2020.
    "The new coach, whom Chairman Urbano Cairo welcomes with the most cordial welcome and best wishes for the job, will lead his first training session this afternoon," Torino said.
    Mazzari is the 11th coach of the era of Cairo, a communications and media magnate, following De Biasi, Zaccheroni, Novellino, Camolese, Colantuono, Beretta, Lerda, Papadopulo, Ventura and Mihajlovic. Former Lazio, Sampdoria and Inter defender Mihajlovic, 48, is the seventh coaching casualty in Serie A with the season at its halfway point.
    Also axed were Massimo Rastelli (Cagliari), Marco Baroni (Benevento), Ivan Juric (Genoa), Luigi Delneri (Udinese), Cristian Bucchi (Sassuolo) and Vincenzo Montella (Milan).
    Torino have also endured a poor run in Serie A.
    They have dropped to 10th in the table, 23 points behind leaders Napoli.
    Torino have won just one of their last eight Serie A matches.
    Ten draws in 19 matches hurt Mihajlovic .
    Serbian Mihajlovic has now been fired four times in his coaching career.
    He was also sacked by Bologna, Fiorentina and AC Milan.
    Mihajlovic also coached Sampdoria and, for a year, Serbia. Mihajlovic was hired by Torino in May 2016.
    He led the team to a ninth-place finish last season.