Manuel Neuer's excellence in
Schalke's 2-0 home defeat to Manchester United in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final is summed up in the headline used by the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: "Man Utd 0, Man Utd 2", they shout, picking up the 1 v 11 theme that was pretty common in the reporting of the match. "Wo war eigentlich der Rest von Schalke?" asked Bild – "where, exactly, were the rest of Schalke?"
Bild's front page is dominated once again by the build-up to Friday's royal wedding, but there's room in the corner for a brief mention of the game. "0-2!
Schalke, bye-bye"," is the headline. "Only Neuer plays well against Man Utd," they say, noting that he spectacularly saved "sieben Großchancen".
Inside, they continue along similar lines. "Only one Schalke player was galactic against United, which was not enough," they write. "Manuel Neuer made sure that Schalke just lost 2-0 and not 7-0. Anyone who saw this gulf in class will not believe in a miracle at Old Trafford in the return leg. United have more than one foot in the final at Wembley. Our national coach, Joachim Löw, called Neuer "sensational" but excuse us, where were the rest of the Schalke players? Rarely has a team in the home leg of a
Champions League semi-final been dominated as much. Schalke's key player in defence, Benedikt Höwedes, was absent with injury and was missing at every corner and every cross. His replacement, Joël Matip, was involved in both United goals."
"Neuer has outgrown Schalke," wrote the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. "This game proved to all the doubters and moaners – his decision to move to Bayern is logical, an important step for the best goalkeeper in the world ... The disappointment was deep, the sadness was great, but Schalke's fans were still proud of their team. Manchester was just a step too far."
In France, L'Equipe continued the Neuer v the rest theme. "It was one against 11, or near enough, Manuel Neuer against
Manchester United," they write. "You can't see how the Germans will manage to reverse the direction of the wind next week at Old Trafford. Without Neuer, who was fantastic in the first half, Schalke 04 could have been known as Schalke 0-6, such was the difference between the teams."
If Neuer (with the possible exception of the injured Höwedes) was the only member of the team to emerge with great credit, Schalke's manager took the brunt of the criticism. "Ralf Rangnick probably thought about it too much," wrote L'Equipe. "He wanted to surprise, by starting with an unforeseen line-up, but he had the opposite effect. By profoundly altering the style of his team, he seemed to shackle them. One would have preferred to see a Schalke who were being themselves, pressing their opponents, throwing themselves at them, taking risks. It was never like that."
But in Italy, at least, writers looked past Schalke's frailties to recognise United's qualities. "United, you're deadly," trills the Gazzetta dello Sport on their front page, where they hail the "dirty tricks of the eternal Ryan Giggs". Their match report starts with "a sad thought: are we really this bad? Schalke, who humiliated Inter, champions of Italy, in the quarter-finals were second best from the first second to the last, at home. Let's just let it go."
"We must thank Sir Alex Ferguson for this joyous footballing machine, which verges on perfection," they continue. Cripes. "They've got it all: skill and physicality, individuality and teamwork, youth and experience. Schalke, who until this night had won all their home games in the Champions League, appeared to have been struck by a boxer two weight categories above them."
The Spanish press, as well as offering us a headline that surely cannot by quite
as prophane as Google Translate thinks it is, appears a bit caught up in preparing for the other semi-final, unsurprisingly. Last night's game merits 10 words in small print at the bottom of Marca's front page (and one of those is "y"), nine at the bottom of Mundo Deportivo's and the same number off to the side of As's (and one of theirs is Raúl).
