Striker Alexis Sanchez has agreed to join Arsenal on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee, the club have announced.

Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona, with the Chile forward having travelled to London for his medical.

Arsenal remain confident of pushing through a £30mi deal for Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona and expect to complete the signing of France defender Mathieu Debuchy later this week.

Germany coach Joachim Low has named a preliminary squad of 30 players for the World Cup, with Fiorentina striker Mario Gomez the biggest name to miss the cut.

Laurent Blanc insists Paris St Germain will still be playing to win despite holding a 4-0 lead going into their Champions League clash with Bayer Leverkusen tonight.

Noel King will send his Republic of Ireland side out against Germany under orders to do whatever it takes to secure a famous victory.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic fired out a warning to the Republic of Ireland with a hat-trick in Sweden's 4-2 friendly defeat of neighbours Norway in Stockholm.

Seamus Coleman has been handed his first competitive start as a much-changed Republic of Ireland attempt to halt Germany's charge towards World Cup qualification tonight.

Germany coach Joachim Low paid a glowing tribute to the Republic of Ireland team and warned his players not to underestimate their hosts in Dublin tomorrow night.

Germany’s Mario Goetze and Lukas Podolski are nursing minor injuries but will be fit for tomorrow night’s World Cup soccer qualifier against Ireland in Dublin, assistant coach Hansi Flick said last night.

Marco Tardelli has insisted the Republic of Ireland will set out determined to beat Germany to boost their hopes of World Cup qualification.

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.

Germany captain Philipp Lahm has branded the mole leaking team line-ups to the media as a “disgrace” and admits the spy could be damaging their chances of winning Euro 2012.

Euro 2012 has been waiting for a team to really stamp its authority on this tournament; and last night Germany grabbed that opportunity in hugely convincing style with a display so powerful and confident they could rightly overtake Spain as favourites to win the trophy.

Germany coach Joachim Loew is confident his team will find a way through what he expects to be a wall of Greece players protecting their own penalty area in tonight’s Euro 2012 quarter-final.

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

I will never forget the sunny evening of June 14, 2006. I sat in a café on Berlin’s Kurfuerstendamm watching Germany play Poland in a World Cup match in Dortmund: an intense, low-quality game. In injury time, Germany broke down the right and Oliver Neuville stabbed in the winning goal at the near post.

Barcelona 7 Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Barcelona win 10-2 on aggregate)

Bayer Leverkusen 2 Chelsea 1

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.

Louis van Gaal insisted he would not resign following Bayern Munich’s 3-1 defeat at Hannover this afternoon.