Real Madrid spoiled crosstown rival Atletico Madrid's short honeymoon as Spanish leader by winning its Copa del Rey semifinal first leg, while Barcelona also took control of its series with a victory over Real Sociedad.

Pepe, Jese Rodriguez, and Angel Di Maria all scored as Madrid won a bad-tempered crosstown derby 3-0 to humble Atletico on Wednesday, three days after it took the outright league lead, with only its second loss of the season and first in 23 matches.

Fiorentina forward Mario Gomez is back in training after nearly five months out with a left knee injury.

As Gomez finally linked back with his teammates on Wednesday, he joked "hello, my name's Mario and I'm a striker!"

Maria Sharapova is back in the town of her early childhood, which also happens to be one of Russia's warmest spots — and the host of the Winter Games.

Siberia-born Sharapova spent six years in Sochi, where she had her first tennis lessons before leaving for the United States to continue her development in the game.

Princess Anne of Britain says Olympic opening ceremonies have become excessive, two years after her mother starred in the London show.

The princess lamented to fellow IOC members that athletes have become an "add on."

The Olympic flame reached Sochi Wednesday, following a 65,000-kilometer (39,000-mile) route, the longest in the history of the games.

During the journey, the torch relay reached the North Pole, went to the top of Europe's highest mountain, plunged into the world's deepest lake and was even taken into space by Russian cosmonauts. The torchbearers included a 101-year-old man.

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has been banned for three Spanish league games for receiving a red card and then making a mocking gesture toward the match officials in a game at Athletic Bilbao.

The Portugal forward was shown a straight red for swiping his hand across the face of Bilbao's Carlos Gurpegi's following a shove from his opponent in Sunday's 1-1 league draw.

It's fast, furious and threatens to present the Sochi Winter Olympics with its first major headache as the hunt for snowboarding gold gets underway at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.

More than 240 athletes from 31 nations were due to launch themselves down the the troubled track from Thursday, but that number has already been reduced by one after Norway's gold medal favorite in slopestyle, Torstein Horgmo, crashed out in training and suffered a broken collarbone.

Third-tier Sheffield United scored in the last minute of extra time to dump sorry Premier League strugglers Fulham out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday.

The fourth-round replay at a rain-soaked Craven Cottage was almost completely devoid of goalmouth incident and looked destined for penalties until Shaun Miller snatched a dramatic winner in the 120th minute.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday said he was rooting for women who will ski jump at the Sochi Olympics for the first time.

"Of course, you will not see me at the top of the jump. But I will be rooting for women athetes to jump as high and leap as far," said Ban.

David Beckham is poised to confirm on Wednesday that he will own a team in Miami, boosting further his global profile and that of Major League Soccer.

It has been one of the worst-kept secrets in world football that the former England star intends to exercise his option to buy an MLS club and wants to bring it to Miami, with the plan contingent on a deal for a privately funded stadium, U.S. media report.