European Paper Review

Lacazette on fire, Gotze back at Borussia, Claudio Bravo set for Man City and Pirlo laughing at Man United.

Serie A and La Liga don’t start until next weekend and the Bundesliga not for another two weeks, but, like its neighbour over the Channel, France’s Ligue 1 got up and running this weekend.

The opening two days of Ligue 1 produced a flood of goals including three from the much coveted Alexandre Lacazette as Lyon won 3-0 away at Nancy. “Lacazette already on fire,” said Le Figaro, “He’s going to take the league by storm,” added Le Monde.

Meanwhile L’Équipe, who reported last week that the French striker has been the subject of failed €30m and €50m bids from Arsenal and West Ham United respectively, praised Lacazette’s “surgical precision” and “impressive sang-froid,” saying: “Lacazette has a taste for Lyon! With 21 goals last season and 27 the season before, the Lyon forward has started this season strongly too … a truly great performance.”

Elsewhere, there were goals galore as Caen, Metz and Bordeaux all secured 3-2 victories. “Madness!” L’Équipe called it, although it “wasn’t so straight-forward for Paris” as Unai Emery’s PSG got off to a slow start with an unconvincing 1-0 win away at Bastia thanks to a 73^rd minute strike from Layvin Kurzawa. “Kurzawa spreads his wings” said Le Parisien, suggesting that he could be set to take Maxwell’s place on PSG’s left flank.

Hatem Ben Arfa enjoyed a less impressive competitive debut and was substituted by fellow new signing Jesé midway through the second half. The former Newcastle man “lacked spontaneity and attempted too many runs,” according to L’Équipe, “sometimes putting his teammates at risk by dribbling too close to his own goal.”

Talk in Germany this week was all about Sunday’s SuperCup which saw Borussia Dortmund host Bayern Munich in the first (albeit semi-competitive) Klassiker of the season.

“Will it be ‘Echte Liebe’ [true love] again?” asked SportBILD, as Mario Götze prepared to rekindle his relationship with Dortmund fans who still regard him as a traitor. “Götze has a massive task ahead of him … and there won’t be a honeymoon period.”

SportBILD also revealed that the club even took steps to measure opinions towards Götze among match-going fans ahead of their season launch event this weekend, including discussions with Dortmund’s largest ultra group.

Tagesspiegel called the game “one big meeting of old colleagues” with Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels lining up for Bayern against their former side and Sebastian Rode starting for Dortmund. Götze remained on the bench.

In the end, Bayern ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Arturo Vidal and Thomas Müller, the second after a knock-down from Hummels, who was booed from the first minute of a hotly contested encounter.

As Spiegel pointed out, it meant that new manager Carlo Ancelotti (and long term English assistant Paul Clement) has already bagged a trophy that Pep Guardiola never won.

Off the field, former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeneß is set to stand for re-election later this year after having served a prison sentence for tax evasion.

Whilst his presidential candidacy will go unopposed within the club (the role is largely ceremonial), Hoeneß is also expected to take over the position of chairman of the board – a representative role for which Munich’s Tageszeitung questioned his suitability.

But Bayern’s big three shareholders, adidas, Allianz and Deutsche Telekom, whose representatives sit on the board, have all voiced their approval, the latter telling Focus magazine that “[Hoeneß’s] expertise in the job is well recognised from his years of experience and his deep connection to the club.”

Nevertheless, according to a survey commissioned by Focus, 53% of Germans responded that Hoeneß should not stand for president again and only 33% said they found the decision good.

Back on the pitch, Kicker voted Jérôme Boateng Germany’s footballer of the year, the first defender to win the prize since Borussia Dortmund’s Jürgen Kohler in 1997.

In Spain, Real Madrid won their first trophy of the season, securing the European Super Cup with a victory over Sevilla in Trondheim last Tuesday. It was the second time the game had been played between the pair in three years, with Madrid successful twice. Sevilla were also finalists in Spain’s two-legged domestic Super Cup, with Barcelona their opponents. The Catalans won the first leg 2-0 in Andalusia on Sunday night, with goals from Luis Suarez and Munir.

‘Barça start strong’ is the headline on Monday’s AS. ‘Barca resists, wears down then punishes’ continued the paper. The second leg is on Thursday at Camp Nou with a fan-friendly kick off time of 11pm. Some Barça fans are worried that Manchester City will take goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, with the Catalan daily Mundo Deportivo writing “City was knocked back by Barcelona a couple of weeks ago when they put in a bid for Marc-André ter Stegen (they were told to come back with the player’s buy-out - a not-insubstantial 80 million euros); and now they will go for Ter Stegen’s team mate, Claudio Bravo. The 33-year-old’s buy-out is 42 million but considering his age, and that the club only paid Real Sociedad 12 million for him two seasons ago, Barça would be willing to let the Chilean leave for a fee between 20 and 25 million euros.”

Madrid will unveil the signings of Alvaro Morata and Marc Asensio with their first team this week. The European champions missed out on Paul Pogba but, as with many in Italy, they agree with Pogba’s former teammate Andrew Pirlo who said of Pogba: “The first day he trained with us we were all laughing. We didn’t laugh for any other reason than incredulousness; that a player of such ability could be let go for nothing. I think Juventus are still laughing.”

Manchester United will be more interested in an additional Pirlo comment: “He’s a player who can be the best in his position for the next ten years. This honour has been fought between Messi and Cristiano for many years, but football is prepared for a new king.”