Valencia is close to completing its return to the Champions League after beating Monaco 3-1 Wednesday in their first leg playoff on a night full of late goals by teams fighting to reach the lucrative group stage of Europe's top club competition.

Sofiane Feghouli led two-time former finalist Valencia by assisting Rodrigo Moreno's opener and netting a third goal with four minutes to play to put his Spanish team in a strong position to advance.

Spanish coach Michel has been appointed by Marseille as the successor to Marcelo Bielsa, the French club announced on Wednesday.

"It is official. Jose Miguel Gonzalez del Campo is the coach of OM," Marseille announced on their Twitter feed with a picture of Michel holding an OM shirt alongside president Vincent Labrune.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique will miss the first four matches of the new La Liga season for abusing match officials in the European champions' Spanish Super Cup defeat to Athletic Bilbao.

Pique was shown a straight red card in the second leg of the tie on Monday, which ended 1-1, for taking his protests towards the linesman too far as Barca failed to overcome a 4-0 first leg deficit.

Memphis Depay announced his arrival at Manchester United by scoring a first-half double and providing a late assist for Marouane Fellaini in a 3-1 win over Bruges in the first leg of their Champions League playoff on Tuesday.

Playing his third match in United's iconic No. 7 shirt since joining from PSV Eindhoven in the offseason, the 21-year-old Netherlands winger rescued his new club from potential embarrassment after the Belgian side took a surprise 8th-minute lead through an own goal by Michael Carrick.

Roger Federer took a first step toward a seventh Cincinnati title on Tuesday night, beating Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match.

The Swiss star won the Western & Southern Open last year for his unprecedented sixth title at the longtime ATP Tour stop. He got a good start by easily handling the Spaniard, whom he has beaten in straight sets in all four of their matches.

All Blacks Liam Messam and Sonny Bill Williams have been named in the New Zealand rugby sevens squad for next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Flanker Messam and center Williams, a convert from rugby league, were included in the 16-man squad named Wednesday by coach Gordon Tietjens.

Sebastian Coe has won a four-year term as president of the governing body for track and field and has been given an immediate mandate to restore the image of an IAAF hierarchy grappling with a doping controversy.

The 58-year-old Coe received 115 votes to Sergei Bubka's 92 in the election Wednesday to replace 82-year-old Lamine Diack of Senegal, who stood down after 16 years

The men appear on horseback at daybreak, emerging from the thorny thicket of shrubs and small trees that mark the semiarid landscape of the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco.

The 200 or so cowboys known in Portuguese as "vaqueiros" are clad head-to-toe in traditional garb called "gibao." The protective leather clothing consists of elaborately stitched chaps, jackets, hats and hand coverings decorated with bits of orange, red and blue that they have donned for the annual festival known as "Pega de Boi," or "Catch the Bull."

Croatian international midfielder Mateo Kovacic has joined Real Madrid from Inter Milan on a six-year deal, the Spanish giants confirmed on Tuesday.

"Real Madrid and Inter Milan have agreed the transfer of Mateo Kovacic, who will be tied to the club for the next six seasons," Madrid said in a statement.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is "surprised" at the warmth of the welcome from Manchester United fans since the World Cup winner's move from Bayern Munich to Old Trafford.

The 30-year-old Germany midfield general completed a £14m (19.47m euros, $21.72m) switch to United last month after agreeing a three-year deal with Louis van Gaal's Premier League side.