European Paper Review

Bale blitzes Bees, Suarez stings Sporting, Hummels on his future and Juve about to be champions.

Spain’s leading three all won at the weekend to stay within a point of each other with four games to play. Barça beat Sporting 6-0, with Luis Suarez scoring four, several of them dubiously awarded goals.

Atletico cracked Malaga, with Diego Simeone sent off to the stands after a ball was kicked onto the field from his area. They’ll play Bayern Munich at home in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Madrid is where it’s all happening at the moment and the weekend’s biggest drama was in Vallecas where Real Madrid came from 2-0 down to beat Rayo 3-2, with Gareth Bale scoring twice. Zidane’s side were missing Ronaldo, Casemiro, Modric and Sergio Ramos, with Bale left as the star man.

“Then came the reaction, led by Gareth Bale, who opened and closed the scoring and generally dragged his teammates in his wake,” said Alfredo Relano of AS

“For me, it was his most convincing performance since he arrived in Madrid. He took responsibility for a situation that threatened to turn drama into a full-blown crisis.”

Bale has been Madrid’s best player in their recent good run of form. The Welshman makes the front page of Monday’s AS, smiling and holding a Champions League football ahead of Madrid’s semi-final first leg in Manchester against City. “The most important thing is getting a game away from home” opines Bale, the man who correctly said La Liga wasn’t over after his side’s win in Camp Nou at the start of the month.

In Germany, Borussia Dortmund are bracing themselves for change this summer if reports in Germany are to be believed. BILD reported early last week that 25-year-old midfielder Ilkay Gündogan has agreed a five-year deal with Manchester City before Mats Hummels told Sky Deutschland that he has “set a date” to make a decision on his future which he admitted has been “keeping him awake at night.” Welt report that Barcelona are interested in the 27-year-old centre back. Finally, Sportbild claim that BVB have secured a deal for French “mega talent” Ousmane Dembélé of French side Rennes.

On the pitch in the DFB-Pokal semi-final on Wednesday, Gonzalo Castro, Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan “destroyed Hertha’s final dream” in a comfortable 3-0 win to set up a date with Bayern Munich. “Berlin tristesse, Dortmund finesse” summed up Süddeutsche Zeitung, although Berlin-based Tagesspiegel insisted that “the sun doesn’t have to go down for Hertha; they may have lost the semi-final but they’ve had an impressive season.” Despite concerns over a lack of support for the capital’s biggest team, magazine 11 Freunde suggested that Hertha are finally unleashing “football euphoria in Berlin.”

Unfortunately for Hertha, Bayern Munich were the visitors in the Bundesliga on Saturday and strolled to a 2-0 win in “energy-saving mode” (Kicker). “Bayern are becoming part-time footballers!” laughed BILD. But a Mkhitaryan-inspired Dortmund won 3-0 away at Stuttgart, meaning that “Bayern’s title party was postponed” (Berliner Morgenpost) until next week at least.

Bayer Leverkusen took advantage of Hertha’s defeat to tighten their grip on third place as they scored three goals in six second half minutes to overturn a two goal deficit away at Schalke, Javier Hernandez hitting the winner. “Schalke knocked out in 393 seconds!” exclaimed BILD. “Six black minutes” said Süddeutsche Zeitung, whilst Focus hailed an “offensive spectacle.” Kicker said: “The works team are the team of the hour in the Bundesliga, surfing a wave of success towards the Champions League.”

At the bottom, Hannover were finally relegated despite a 2-2 draw away at Ingolstadt. Welt said Hannover are “beyond all help” and called their relegation “thoroughly deserved,” pointing out nine “ludicrous problems of the club’s own making”, chief among which they believe to be “planning chaos” at all levels of the club.

Relegation was confirmed when Eintracht Frankfurt beat neighbours Mainz 2-1 to boost their own survival hopes. “Euphoria in Frankfurt” said Kicker, whilst Süddeutsche Zeitung said there’s “still hope” for the Eagles who are now only one point behind Werder Bremen, whose “inadequacies” (Kicker) were exposed in a 2-1 defeat away at Hamburg. Bremen and Frankfurt will meet on the final day of the season.

Ten-man PSG secured more silverware in France on Saturday as they beat Lille 2-1 in the Coupe de la Ligue at the Stade de France. “Paris fortunate, Lille unfortunate” said Le Point, after Angel di Maria took advantage of a mix-up between Lille goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and defender Adama Soumaoro to score the winner. “An unforgiveable error,” said France Football, “what on earth was going through their heads?”

In Ligue 1, France Football praised Lyon’s mental strength as they came from behind to beat Toulouse 3-2 and go second, saying: “What solidarity! What aplomb! Monaco will be fretting now.” The Monégasques slipped to third after a 1-1 draw away at Rennes – “a result which suits nobody” (Le Point).

Struggling Marseille suspended manager Michel in the week and are “continuing to dig their hole” (France Football) after a 1-1 draw home at Nantes. Marseille have now gone 15 games without a win at the Stade Vélodrome and are only five points clear of relegation.

In Italy, football has to compete with Valentino Rossi on the front pages after the rider won the Spanish Moto GP. Juventus won again with an impressive 2-1 win against a faded Fiorentina in Florence. “Triumph in Florence, today the fifth title in a row could arrive,” reads the headline in Corriere dello Sport. Juve will be champions if Napoli don’t win at Roma tonight.

“Buffon sorts it out with a decisive penalty save,” said Corriere dello Sport of Juve’s latest win. Leicester, managed by an Italian, also make the front page again.

Turin based TuttoSport carried a large picture of the celebrating Juve players with the headline “Legendary”. “Juve conquer Florence too and achieve their 24^th triumph in 25 rounds,” says the proud paper. Juventus are an incredible 12 points clear of Napoli with three games to play. Napoli have four games left. They could win all of them and hope Juve lose their remaining three to put them level on points. It’s not happening.