EUROPEAN PAPER REVIEW - Moyes’ future under scrutiny and Madrid come under fire

A round-up of what European newspapers have been reporting including rumours over Moyes future at Real Sociedad, heavy criticism for Real Madrid and Batman’s return at Borussia Dortmund.

The net began to close around David Moyes on Sunday evening, with leaks from Real Sociedad that he was about to be sacked after a year in the job.

Moyes’ president Jokin Aperribay, with whom he has enjoyed an excellent relationship, wasn’t happy and felt that that any decision should be delivered face-to-face.

AS reported: “We understand David Moyes has arrived back in San Sebastián and is due to meet Apperibay”. That was news to Moyes, who was at Manchester Airport with his Easyjet flight to Bilbao cancelled.

On Monday, the informed Diario Vasco wrote: “La Real will officially confirm on Monday that they’ll end with the Scottish trainer. (Former Barça B boss) Eusebio Sacristán will be the new trainer on the bench at the blue and whites.”

The paper also gave five reasons why he’d lost his job: Not learning Spanish, failure to adapt, dull football, constant doubts from him and not understanding the philosophy of the club and the city.

Moyes would strongly disagree. He made plenty of mistakes and the language was a barrier, but he also worked hard, promoted youth, studied youth team games and walked the city almost every night, with time for everyone he met.

He refused offers in England and was adamant he’d get it right with time. But he’ll not get that time. ‘Bye Moyes, hola Eusebio,’ wrote Marca on page 45.

They had bigger news, chiefly Real Madrid’s 3-2 defeat at Sevilla, their first loss of the season. ‘Madrid weren’t physical, didn’t play football and didn’t have Keylor Navas to save them,” headlined Marca, on a front page which did give Spaniards some joy with Jorge Lorenzo’s Moto GP world title.

“Total Ruin,” wrote Marca’s respected Santiago Segurola of Madrid’s defeat. Cristiano Ronaldo was awarded a paltry 4/10.

In Barcelona, there was much cheer at Neymar’s incredible goal as Barça beat Villarreal 3-0 to go top. “Neymar recreates Ronaldinho’s goal against Osasuna,” wrote Sport of a goal 11 years ago. Barça’s next game is the clasico in two weeks.

The French press this week has been dominated by “L’affaire de la sex-tape” – the scandal implicating Karim Benzema in an attempt to blackmail French teammate Mathieu Valbuena with the release of a private video if the Lyon player failed to pay €100,000.

Benzema has been banned from contacting Valbuena. As Le Monde pointed on out Friday, it’s had a negative effect on Didier Deschamps’ preparations for Les Bleus’ encounters with Germany and England, as the French manager omitted both players from his squad.

In Ligue 1, Marseille’s problems continued with a 1-0 home defeat to local rivals Nice. “The Marseillais were too feeble and out of sorts to hope to beat Nice” said l’Equipe, “They’ve got a long season ahead of them.” LePoint described PSG as “ruthless” as they “outclassed” Toulouse in a 5-0 win at the Parc des Princes, Angel Di Maria opening the scoring after just six minutes.

Caen got back to winning ways with a 2-1 win over Guingamp, the Normans “taking hold of the reins in the ‘other’ championship” (Eurosport France) as the win temporarily took them 2nd. That was until Lyon beat St. Étienne 3-0 thanks to an Alexandre Lacazette hat-trick in the last ever Derby rhônalpin at the Stade de Gerland. “Lyon and Lacazette punish the Greens!” said FranceFootball, adding: “Lyon are incontestably the second best side in France.”

In Germany, all eyes were on the Ruhr valley as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 met at the Westfalenstadion for the first Revierderby of the season.

“Batman Aubameyang crowns BVB king of the Ruhr!” said the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Boom! Batman floors Schalke!” screamed BILD, as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang revealed a Batman t-shirt in homage to last season’s corresponding fixture when he and Marco Reus donned Batman and Robin masks to celebrate in front of the Südtribüne. It was his 14th goal of the season, making him the Bundesliga’s joint top scorer with Robert Lewandowski.

The Pole was inevitably on target again as Bayern Munich beat a “clueless” VfB Stuttgart (Pforzheimer Zeitung) 4-0 to remain top. For Die Welt, it’s all getting a bit surreal: “FC Bayern continue to enjoy bizarre goal fetish” was their headline, after the champions added to their five goal haul against Arsenal in the Champions League.

“VfB nothing more than Bayern’s plaything”, said Sportschau, “the Münchner once again playing football from another planet.” Pep Guardiola summed up Bayern’s dominance after the game, stating, “If we don’t win the treble it will have been a bad season”.

In the weekend’s other derby, 1. FC Köln made the short journey up the Rhine where they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1, taking them up to 7th. “Cologne the number one on the Rhine!” said Deutsche Welle after a brace from returning centre-back Dominik Maroh secured the 3 points. “Kölle Alaaf!” screamed Spiegel, the traditional shout of the Cologne carnival season which gets underway on Wednesday. For the 10,000 travelling supporters who crossed the Rhine, the party had already started.

Eighty kilometres to the west, Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 100% record since the departure of manager Lucien Favre finally came to end, as they were held to a bad-tempered goalless draw at home to Ingolstadt. “They only came for a fight” complained the Gladbach players, and Ingolstadt midfielder Romain Brégerie admitted that some of his team’s tactics were “a bit borderline”.

Die Welt called Alfredo Morales’ theatrics “the most embarrassing piece of play-acting of the season” as the American rolled around on the floor following a challenge from Alvaro Dominguez, and said the visitors’ actions “overstepped the mark” as Gladbach captain Granit Xhaka saw red.

In Italy, the top five won; La Gazzetta led with ‘Inter and La Viola, a tough top of the table’ after Inter had triumphed 1-0 at Torino and Fiorentina won 2-0 at Sampdoria. Roma beat Lazio in the Roman derby, with the Gazzetta writing ‘Derby and venom. Dzeko penalty and Gervinho put Roma ahead.’

The game was hit by a boycott as thousands of fans from both clubs stayed away in protest at increased security measures at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. “The derby should be a party,” Roma midfielder Alessandro Florenzi told Sky Sport Italia. “I wanted to experience it [the derby atmosphere] at 100 percent but in the end I only felt it at 99 percent.”