TEAM NEWS: Morata starts in attack for Real Madrid against Rayo

By Ori Lewis JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Captain Thiago Alcantara scored a first-half hat-trick to inspire Spain to a 4-2 win over Italy in the European Under-21 championship final on Tuesday. The defending champions had little difficulty in breaking down Italy's unusually hesitant defence as Barcelona's Thiago scored with an easy header in the sixth minute, a close-range drive in the 31st and a penalty in the 38th. Spain added the under-21 title to their collection of international crowns, the World …

MADRID (Reuters) - Barcelona defender Carles Puyol is to have surgery on his right knee to remove a cyst which will keep him sidelined for three to four weeks, the Spanish champions said in a statement on Tuesday. The 35-year-old Spain international, who will undergo the procedure on Wednesday, has suffered a string of injuries over the last year, including two operations on the same knee, a fractured cheekbone and a dislocated elbow. ... …

Barcelona captain Carles Puyol is to undergo knee surgery to remove a cyst, the club confirmed on Tuesday. …

PARIS (Reuters) - The trial of French football stars Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema over claims they paid for sex with an underage call girl was adjourned for procedural reasons on Tuesday until 2014. Benzema, a Real Madrid striker, and Ribery, a Bayern Munich winger, are to be tried on charges of paying Zahia Dehar, a prostitute-turned-fashion muse, for sex in 2008 and 2009, when she was only 16, then 17 years old. Neither footballer showed up in court on Tuesday. The pair, both players in …