Arsenal can guarantee their place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League by beating Kiev at the Emirates – 19:45 ITV4

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s agent is reported to have pulled out of talks with Real Madrid after the news of the dialogue was leaked to the German media.

Kicker published the story on Monday that Real’s technical secretary, Miguel Angel Portugal, was due to open talks and that upset the player’s representative.

The 24-year-old’s contract with Bayern Munich is due to expire at the end of the season and Madrid were hoping to steal a march on their rivals for the German international.

Madrid have now insisted that they were only keen to discover whether Schweinsteiger was keen to leave Bayern or whether he was waiting for an offer from them.

“We only wanted to know if the player would leave at the end of the season, but he is not someone we are looking at for January,” a club insider told AS.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge insists the German giants will go to their financial limit to keep Schweinsteiger at the Allianz Arena, but admits that may not be enough to prevent him leaving.

Rummenigge told Bild: “Bastian belongs to Bayern. He has become great here.

“We will fight for him and go up to the limit of what is feasible in order to keep him.

“It is clear to us that the interest in a free Germany international is very big. We cannot help that there will be talks.

“We simply do not have the financial means from TV marketing like for example Real Madrid.”

Arsenal can guarantee their place in the knock-out stages of the Champions League by beating Kiev at the Emirates – 19:45 ITV4

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