Arsenal’s Premier League surge is in marked contrast to their rivals in Champions League Group D.

The Champions League final traditionally ends the football season across Europe, but it doesn’t feel that way this year.

Malaga were hit by lightning and the death of coach Manuel Pellegrini’s father as they prepared for tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second leg at Borussia Dortmund.

Ireland’s Group C rivals Germany eased past lowly Kazakhstan 3-0 last night without deploying any strikers for the first time in a competitive match under coach Joachim Loew as they stayed top of the group.

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.

Champions League Matchday Two: the tournament is still at the skirmishing stage, yet the draw has thrown up a fixture that harks back to the good old days of the European Cup, when title winners were not protected by seeding, as they usually are now.

Match of the Century, they called it. There’s even a plaque on the wall of the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City to commemorate the delirious 4-3 win that sent Italy through to the final of the 1970 World Cup at the expense of West Germany.

The odds are on Spain to retain their European crown for good reason.

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.

ROBIN VAN PERSIE’S contribution to Arsenal’s rapidly improving fortunes continues to grow with the forward scoring twice, taking his recent tally to 12 goals in eight games, to secure qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League for an 11th successive season last night.

IT has been said of the Bundesliga that it’s the most exciting competition in the world, except when Bayern Munich are playing well, and a look at the table seems to confirm it.