European Paper Review: Bundesliga manager sacked, refugee crisis causes controversy and Barcelona and Real Madrid deposed from the back pages

Round-up of European newspapers as the first managerial sacking of the Bundesliga season arrives and a row erupts between football clubs over the refugee crisis.

Football was pushed off the front pages of Monday’s Spanish media by basketball after Spain were crowned European champions. The gold medal even pushed Barcelona into the corner of the cover of Catalan daily Mundo Deportivo, which mentioned Barça’s 4-1 win at home to Levante with a ‘return of the goals’ headline. Barça stay top of La Liga with four straight wins, though they’ve yet to score a league goal in the first half so far this season. Barça fans holding up a flag in support of the suspended Gerard Pique also featured prominently.

Marca dedicated their cover and the first 19 pages to the basketball triumph before Real Madrid got a look in. An unlikely headline is ‘Celta is in the Champions’ [League positions]. The Galicians beat Sevilla away 2-1 and sit third. Not only that, Luis Enrique’s former club play exceptionally entertaining football. Celta entertain Enrique’s current club Barça on Wednesday in a full midweek of Spanish fixtures. Marca also praised ‘Decisive Casillas’ for his performance for new club FC Porto in their 1-0 win against rivals Benfica.

Over to Germany, where earlier this month Borussia Mönchengladbach’s sporting director Max Eberl told BILD that manager Lucien Favre was “unsackable”. By Sunday evening the Swiss broadsheet Tages-Anzeiger was reporting that their countryman had resigned. After guiding Gladbach back to Europe’s top table for the first time since 1978, Favre has overseen the club’s worst start to a Bundesliga season for fifty years. This week, his team crashed to a 3-0 defeat in Sevilla in their opening Champions League tie – described as a “debacle” by Focus - before meekly succumbing to arch-rivals FC Köln (1-0) in a poor Rhein derby on Saturday. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung damned the Foals’ start to the season as “incomprehensibly bad” and drew comparisons with Borussia Dortmund’s collapse last season, lamenting “no danger in front of goal and no improvement in sight”. Upon resigning, Favre said in a statement that he “no longer feels [he’s] the perfect manager for the club”.

As Kicker pointed out, it was “déja vu” for VfB Stuttgart, the only other Bundesliga team still without a point. Once again the Swabians enjoyed the best of the action at home to Schalke but still lost 1-0. However it seems unlikely that manager Alexander Zorniger will go the same way as Lucien Favre. He remains convinced of his side’s style of play and was applauded by the Stuttgart fans despite the defeat.

After fans held banners last week declaring “refugees welcome”, tabloid BILD launched its own campaign in co-operation with Hermes whereby the parcel courier’s logo which usually appears on players’ sleeves was replaced by a badge proclaiming “Wir helfen!”- “We’re helping”. “Never has there been so much heart for refugees”, exclaimed the tabloid on Saturday, but not everyone was so impressed.

FC St. Pauli were first to withdraw their participation, closely followed by a further nine second division sides. On Thursday, national broadsheet Tageszeitung criticised the campaign as “charity as business”, stating that “BILD is determined to use football as a marketing platform”. BILD’s editor in chief hit back at St. Pauli by tweeting “No heart for refugees, shame on you”, a move described by the Tageszeitung as “Jacobin moral posturing”.

Back on the pitch, a proud Bayerischer Rundfunk exclaimed that “the FCI train rolls on and is writing history!” as newcomers FC Ingolstadt continued their impressive start with a 1-0 win away at Werder Bremen. Sportschau criticised a Wolfsburg attack consisting of German internationals André Schürrle, Max Kruse and new signing Julian Draxler as “harmless for long periods” as the Wolves laboured to a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin.

Spiegel was full of praise for Bayern Munich’s win away at Darmstadt, lauding Pep Guardiola’s side for demonstrating “exactly the sort of pragmatism needed against a beatable opponent” going into the Bundesliga’s first englische Woche (English week) of the season, as Germans refer to weeks involving midweek games. Borussia Dortmund “strolled to victory” (Kicker) over a “harmless” (Sportschau) Bayer Leverkusen side, maintaining their 100% start with a 3-0 win.

In France, following two goals in a minute in a frenzied finale, PSG drew 1-1 away at Reims. “Mad, absolutely beyond words. This league isn’t won yet”, enthused 20minutes.fr. St Étienne capitalised by “brushing aside” (FranceFootball) Nantes 2-0 and moving up to third whilst Monaco missed a chance to make up ground as they lost 3-2 at home to Lorient.

L’Équipe praised Anthony Martial’s “rapid adaptation” to life in the Premier League as the young Frenchman became the first player under 20 to score three times in his first two league games with his brace in United’s 3-2 win at Southampton.

In Italy, Inter striker Icardi made the cover of La Gazzetta dello Sport’s after scoring the only goal as Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan side won 1-0 at Chievo which maintained their 100% record. Icardi claims his team “still lack an understanding.” Napoli scored five again following their midweek win against Club Brugge. On Sunday they hammered Lazio 5-0.

“We did well,” said coach Maurizio Sarri told Premium Sport after the match. Sarri had been criticised by many including club legend Maradona after a poor start to the season. Scoring five twice in four days will call the dogs off for a while.