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European Paper Review

Bale shines again in Spain without Benzema and Cristiano, but will Ronaldo be ready to face City? In Germany, Hummels wants to leave the club where there’s love, but is it false love? In Italy, Milan have slipped to seventh.

With all three leading sides winning at the weekend, Spain’s title race remains the closest in football with Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid all enjoying narrow victories. A point separates all three, though Barça have the advantage with a superior goal record with three games to play. Fourth place Villarreal also won, guaranteeing themselves Champions League football ahead of Thursday’s trip to Liverpool.

Gareth Bale scored Madrid’s winner in San Sebastian. “Madrid didn’t win La Liga matches without Cristiano and Benzema…until Bale,” wrote AS. You have to go back to 2010 for the last time Madrid won a game without Benzema or Ronaldo in their team, but Bale is becoming more vital for his side with each month. “He dominated his opponents in the air, eventually getting the headed winner with just ten minutes to play,” wrote AS.

Fans are delighted with Bale, but every Madrid fan wants Ronaldo back for Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Manchester City in the Bernabeu. “Ronaldo going all out and is desperate to play,” reckons AS, who add that he hopes to be declared fit after a muscle strain in his right thigh having returned to training.

In Germany on Thursday, Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels announced his desire to leave the club, most probably to join Bayern Munich. “It’s the start of the end of the Bundesliga,” said a damning Spiegel, “the league is destroying itself,” as Bayern plan to add Hummels to a list of ex-Dortmund players which already includes Robert Lewandowski and Mario Götze. The magazine criticised Germany’s famous 50%+1 rule aimed at preventing takeovers of clubs, saying it discouraged investors from giving opponents the chance to challenge Bayern. Deutsche Welle was critical of Borussia Dortmund, dismissing their “Echte Liebe” (true love) branding as “Falsche Liebe” (false love) and cold, calculated marketing. “Players love their wives, their cars, their PlayStation and their pay check,” commented editor Joscha Weber, “But their employers? Come on.”

When the football got underway on Saturday, Borussia Mönchengladbach postponed Bayern’s title celebrations by rescuing a 1-1 draw in the Allianz Arena, with Kicker describing the champions-elect as “too passive.”

The draw gave Dortmund the chance to close the gap to five points with two games left, which they did with a 5-1 hammering of a “disastrous” (Kicker) Wolfsburg. Dortmund’s hardcore supporters on the Südtribüne welcomed Hummels with banners reading: “The captain is the first to leave the ship - the sooner the better!” and whistled the centre back’s first few touches of the ball. “Hummels whistles dampen goal fest” said BILD but in the end the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that there was “more joy at the result than anger at Hummels.”

Bayer Leverkusen booked their place in next season’s Champions League with a 2-1 win at home to Hertha Berlin. “The best of the rest!” said Süddeutsche Zeitung. Hertha, meanwhile, appear to have run out of steam at the end of an impressive campaign. “Hertha lose match but gain Europe,” said the Berliner Morgenpost as the Berliners nevertheless guaranteed themselves a Europa League place.

All eyes now turn to the bottom of the table where three traditional giants of German football, Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart, are battling to avoid the drop. Spiegel believe Frankfurt are “theoretically safe” after their 2-1 derby win away at local rivals Darmstadt. “Frankfurt show comeback quality” said Kicker. “Frankfurt turn volatile derby” added Die Welt, referring to a heated encounter where even a ban on away supporters at Darmstadt’s Böllenfalltor stadium couldn’t prevent violent scenes which resulted in 530 arrests, according to Tagesspiegel.

Bremen host Stuttgart tonight, before welcoming Frankfurt on the final day.

In France this week, L’Équipe ran a 10-page feature on Premier League player of the year Riyad Mahrez, who they called the “Roi d’Angleterre” ahead of Leicester City’s trip to Old Trafford. Elsewhere, Le Monde reported on the French Parliament’s controversial passing of an “anti-hooligan” law which will enable clubs to refuse to sell tickets to fans they suspect of causing trouble, even if the fans are not subject to banning orders.

In Ligue 1, France Football can “finally see a little clearer” as wins for Lyon (2-1 vs Ajaccio) and Monaco (3-1 vs Guingamp), combined with Nice’s 1-0 defeat to Nantes and St Etienne’s 0-0 draw against Toulouse, created some breathing space at the top. Maxifoot described Lyon’s win as “laborious” but Le Progrès said “Lyon overcome Ajaccio obstacle and set up ‘final’ against Monaco” as they looked ahead to next weekend’s all-important meeting between the two sides, who are level on points.

At the bottom, Marseille finally won for the first time in 11 games to guarantee their Ligue 1 survival with a 1-0 win away at Angers. “It’s about time,” said an unimpressed France Football.

In Italy, no newspapers were published on Monday’s public holiday, but news of Paolo Maldini receiving Athletic Bilbao’s ‘one club man’ award was well received. The Basques similarly honoured Englishman Matt Le Tissier last year. The former Milan player received a hero’s welcome as he was introduced to the crowd at San Mames. While Maldini was out of Italy, news of Claudio Ranieri returning to his homeland for the day was also welcomed. He’s to take his 96-year-old mother to lunch on Monday.

There was a full Serie A fixture this weekend, with champions Juventus beating Carpi in a game where Paul Pogba made a career record 126 touches in a game. The shock of the day was Frosinone taking a 2-0 lead at San Siro against AC Milan before drawing 3-3.


Milan coach Christian Brocchi told Sky Sport Italia: “Today was one of those games that football gives you sometimes.” That was little consolation to those Milan fans who, having seen their team drop to seventh, fear they might not get a top six finish to qualify for Europe.