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European Paper Review

Madrid drop points for a second consecutive game, while PSG lose again. There’s a hat-trick but accusations of arrogance for The Little Pea in Germany, while Joe Hart is impressing in Turin.

‘Rebound’ was the order like headline on Sunday’s Marca after Real Madrid dropped points for the second game in succession. Things had seemed so bright a week earlier when they beat their club record 16 wins, but then drew with Villarreal midweek and Las Palmas on Saturday.

Las Palmas are very good, but Marca took a different angle: ‘A fortunate goal for Araujo in the 84th minute levels a game which Madrid had controlled. Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t look delighted to be brought off after 71 minutes with his side losing 2-1. His coach Zinedine Zidane said he did it with Tuesday in mind. Madrid play Borussia Dortmund away tomorrow. They’re still top of La Liga, but while the rest of the world sees Barca or Madrid dropping points as good for the credibility of the league, the Spanish giants see it as a defeat. “High Tension!” is the cover of Monday’s Catalan daily Sport : tension in Madrid between Ronaldo and his boss, something the Catalan dailies will do anything they can to exacerbate.

“They (Madrid) really need Cristiano on his game and at present the No. 7 is a shadow of his former self,” opined Alfredo Relano in AS. “Yesterday he played a role in the second goal and that’s it, the striker clearly is not at full fitness.”

Barcelona won 5-0 at Sporting Gijon without playing particularly well. Three of the goals came in the last ten minutes. “Neymar (two goals) and Suarez (one) makes people forget about Messi,” wrote Marca. Talking of unhappy subs, Luis Suarez didn’t appear to be delighted to be replaced by Paco Alcacer.

With a new manager, Valencia won a second successive game after four defeats at the start of the season. ‘Gracias Voro’ is the headline on Monday’s Super Deporte, Voro being the man who stands in whenever Valencia sack their coach. Which is often.

The big story in Germany is Schalke 04 who have now endured their worst ever start to a Bundesliga season. There was optimism in Gelsenkirchen that the Royal Blues could push for Europe this season and even topple local rivals Borussia Dortmund, but even before this weekend’s fifth straight defeat – this time 1-2 away at TSG Hoffenheim – Kicker was already saying: “The honeymoon period is over.”

“Schalke misery!” headlined local Ruhr magazine RevierSport. “Schalke have reached rock-bottom,” they continued, identifying “an inexplicable lack of concentration and a faintheartedness in attack” as two key areas of concern. But they stopped short of criticising the new manager. “Is Markus Weinzierl the right man for the job?” they asked. “Yes - but we want to see Schalke fight!”

Another big club in crisis is Hamburger SV who have one point from five games following a late 0-1 loss to Bayern Munich on Saturday – Joshua Kimmich with the last-minute winner. “What a bitter defeat!” sympathised Kicker, “HSV produced a passionate display but couldn’t hold out against furious Bayern attacks.” The defeat marked the end of the road for Bruno Labaddia who became the second managerial casualty of the season, although Süddeutsche Zeitung were not alone in speculating that the decision had already been made before the Bayern game.

Labaddia, who saved HSV from relegation in 2015, will be replaced by former Hoffenheim manager Markus Gisdol but a critical SportBILD believe “nothing will change. Before a manager has a real chance to build something at HSV, the club need to have an idea of what exactly they want to build!” Kicker agreed, saying that “Hamburg have a structural problem and, in such conditions, the new boss can only fail.”

As for Bayern, the champions are less convincing under Carlo Ancelotti. Mats Hummels was substituted after sustaining a knee injury just before half-time in Hamburg although Munich’s Tageszeitung reported that the centre-back could still be fit for Wednesday’s trip to Athletico Madrid.

“Bayern are playing football from yesterday,” said the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “it’s more fun to watch Dortmund at the moment!” After two 6-0s and a 5-1, BVB look ahead to the visit of Real Madrid on the back of a 3-1 win over Freiburg.

Ex-Nottingham Forest youngster Oliver Burke scored on his first start for RB Leipzig in a 1-1 draw away at Cologne. “Debut goal for Burke the Bull!” quipped SportBILD after the Scot gave the visitors the lead after just five minutes, whilst the Leipziger Volkszeitung hailed their “king of all transfers – RB continue on wave of euphoria!” Kick-off in Cologne was delayed for 15 minutes after Cologne fans staged a sit-down protest, preventing the controversial Red Bull-sponsored club’s bus from entering the stadium. “Blockade!” read the headline in the local Express.

Elsewhere, former Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez hit a hat-trick as Bayer Leverkusen beat Mainz 3-2, but the “Little Pea caused big bother” (Rheinische Post) after “arrogantly” snubbing waiting journalists post-match.

In France, L’Équipe said “PSG got a slap” after the champions crashed to a 2-0 loss away at Toulouse – their second defeat of the season. “Questions need answering,” the paper continued. “Restless and uninspiring, this PSG give the impression that they haven’t mastered Unai Emery’s demands.” In a survey carried out on behalf of Le Parisien, 58% of PSG fans said that former Sevilla manager was a “bad choice” to replace Laurent Blanc.

But Lyon once again failed to capitalise as they lost 1-0 away to Lorient. Local Le Progrès said that “OL lacked ideas in the decisive moments” but praised the return to form of highly-rated forward Nabil Fekir.

In Italy, leaders Juventus and Napoli both won again, but Torino’s 3-1 home win against Roma earned the headline ‘Great Toro’ on the front of Turin’s TuttoSport complete with a picture of Joe Hart about to embrace four of his teammates. “Fantastic Granata” continues the headline, “Always on the attack and without fear, many young players on the pitch to entertain: this is how Miha made an entire population fall in love.” Miha is the Serbian coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, a great player now managing his seventh club. He’s delighted at Hart’s impact, saying: “Joe Hart made some amazing saves. Everyone knows him. He’s an experienced goalkeeper with personality and charisma. He brings confidence, not only to the defence, but the whole team.”

For the defeated Roma, the mood was very different with Ilary Blasi, the wife of hero Francesco Totto, describing the coach Spalletti as a “small man”, a quote repeated with glee on the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport.

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