Atletico Madrid have a mountain to climb if they are to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals after they endured a night to forget at Bayer Leverkusen.

International Friendly

Germany picked up their obligatory group win over Gibraltar but the expected flurry of goals failed to arrive as they only managed to score four without reply in Nuremberg.

Champions League Group D

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Paris St Germain 4

A Texas girl on a dream skydiving trip to celebrate her 16th birthday narrowly escaped death on her first jump when her parachute malfunctioned at 3,500ft and she crashed to the ground.

A 16-year-old girl has amazed doctors by surviving a fall of more than 3,000 feet in a horrific skydiving accident.

Germany 3 Austria 0

Willful Creatures

Real Madrid 2 Borussia Dortmund 0

Borussia Dortmund 4 Real Madrid 1

Borussia Dortmund 3 Malaga 2 (Borussia Dortmund win 3-2 on aggregate)

Malaga 0 Borussia Dortmund 0

Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Borussia Dortmund 2

Hamburg’s Heiko Westermann, has been drafted into the Germany squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against the Republic of Ireland and Sweden after Mats Hummels was forced to withdraw.

Hamburg’s Heiko Westermann has been drafted into the Germany squad for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers against the Republic of Ireland and Sweden after Mats Hummels was forced to withdraw.

The Republic of Ireland have suffered a significant injury worry ahead of next Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Germany with the news that Kevin Doyle is considered a major doubt after incurring a thigh injury in training at Wolves.

Manchester City 1 Borussia Dortmund 1

At the World Cup, Germany scored 13 goals in six games and were widely hailed as a great attacking side – or rather they were a great counter-attacking side.

Lars Bender spared Germany from a shock Euro 2012 exit with the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Denmark, whose tournament ended last night in Lviv.

Denmark 1 Germany 2

Germany defender Mats Hummels cannot wait for the chance to send the Netherlands out of Euro 2012 and book a place in the quarter-finals with victory in Kharkiv on Wednesday.

Barcelona put one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with victory over a Leverkusen side who might wonder what might have been had they attacked from the start last night.

IF CHELSEA weren’t a club in crisis before last night, they are now.

LIONEL MESSI moved into joint-second place on Barcelona’s all-time goalscoring list as his brace helped the defending champions to a comprehensive Champions League Group H win in Minsk last night.

DAVID LUIZ, the forgotten man of Chelsea’s January transfer spree, ensured it wasn’t all about Fernando Torres as Chelsea scraped past Bayer Leverkusen in their opening fixture of the Champions League; but the Spaniard did at least set up both goals to provide a glimmer of hope that his own luck is about to change.

ASSISTANT manager Pat Rice praised the battling qualities shown by Arsenal last night against Borussia Dortmund and believes the team have turned the corner.

Andre Villas-Boas rested Chelsea captain John Terry for tonight’s Champions League opener against Bayer Leverkusen at Stamford Bridge.

Yossi Benayoun was handed his first Arsenal start in this evening’s Champions League clash at Borussia Dortmund.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

The Obama administration has reversed years of US policy by calling for a treaty to cut mercury pollution, which it described as the world’s gravest chemical problem.

THE chief executive of Fraport, the operator of Europe’s second-largest airport in Frankfurt, is planning to negotiate higher landing fees with Ryanair at Frankfurt Hahn.

The suspect in the shooting death of rapper Proof, a hip-hop artist and Eminem confidante, appeared in court today on weapons charges.

Eminem has praised rapper Proof, who was shot dead earlier this week, for his “guidance and encouragement,” calling him “my best friend,” in a posting on his website.

ONE-TIME Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was removed from court on a stretcher and treated for high blood pressure yesterday on the opening day of testimony.

US Navy SEALs are stepping up their investigation into recently-published photographs that show freshly-captured prisoners and grinning commandos sitting or lying on hooded and handcuffed detainees in Iraq.

The US military has launched a criminal investigation into photographs that appear to show US Navy SEAL commandos in Iraq sitting on hooded and handcuffed detainees, it emerged today.

BORD FÁILTE has offered an all-expenses-paid holiday to nine Israelis who were refused accommodation in a four-star holiday home because of their government’s treatment of Palestinians.

Bord Failte has offered a free holiday to an Israeli citizen whose request for accommodation in Co Kerry was rejected because of the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government.

An Israeli citizen has revealed how a Co Kerry hotelier refused to accommodate him and his family because of the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians.