live from the bbc sport centre, this is sport today. coming up on this programme: it's all—square after the first leg of the copa del rey semi—final between barcelona and real madrid. city made to work at everton but they take all 3 points to go top of the english premier league. and it is gold the great britain as james woods soars to ski slopes success james woods soars to ski slopes success in wild weather at the world championships. hello and thanks for joining us on sport today. we start with el clasico part1 as barcelona and real madrid played out a 1—1 draw in the 1st leg of their copa del rey semi final. lucas vazquez had given real madrid an early lead in the 6th minute to quieten the crowds at the camp nou, but summer signing malcolm drew the hosts leveljust before the hour mark. real created the better chances to score a second, but tiredness and the arrival of this man in the final half—hour meant it finished honours even. real madrid with the precious away goal 2nd leg will be played at the bernabeu on the 27th. in england, champions manchester city have

returned to the top of the premier league for the first time since early december. they won 2—nil at everton to retake top spot from liverpool on goal difference. martin fisher reports. manchester city, who fought their defence of the title, and evaporated after a dreadful december, who, who thought a week ago liverpool might go seven points clear of them at the top now go abovejurgen klopp‘s side on goal difference. the smile belongs to those men in sky blue. laporte and jesus with the goals. it's over to you, liverpool. of course, they have to play the game in old trafford, so we will see. we

are leaders, but we are one more game. we will see if we finish that period. 12 games to play, a lot of points, we think we are going to drop points. the opposition are going to drop points. i don't think any team is going to win 12 games in any team is going to win 12 games in a row. we could have been one month ago ten points behind with the game against liverpool and 67 days ago we could be seven points behind. what is the lesson? i will never give up. also in england, brighton are through to the 5th round of the fa cup. glenn murray scored twice in extra—time as they came from behind to win 3—1 at west bromwich albion. brighton face derby in the last 16. holders paris saint—germain are through to the quarter—finals of the french cup but they needed extra time to see off third—tier side villefranche beaujolais. it was goalless after 90 minutes, but psg proved too strong in the end and won it with goals from julian draxler, moussa diaby and edinson cavani who'd been sent on as a sevond—half substitute along with kylian mbappe. bayern munich are through to the quarter—finals

of the german cup. serge gnabry scored twice as bayern came from behind to lead 2—1 at hertha berlin. midway—through the second—half, hertha were level when davie selke pounced on a mistake by bayern‘s mats hummels. that made it 2—all after 90 minutes. but kingsley coman won it for bayern in extra—time when he bundled the ball in from close range. 3—2 the final score. rb leipzig are also through to the last 8. their brazilian winger matheus cunha scored the only goal of the game as they beat bundesliga rivals wolfsburg to reach the last eight for the first time. elsewhere in germany, augsburg won at 2nd division holstein kiel, and schalke beat fortuna dusseldorf 4—1. the draw for the quarter—finals takes place on sunday. racism rearing its ugly head once more. premier league side west ham united are investigating potentially some ugly scenes after a video emerged

of a fan racially abusing liverpool's mohamed salah during monday's1—1 draw at the london stadium. in a statement, west ham said they have "a zero tolerance policy to any form of violent or abusive behaviour". the bbc‘s sports editor dan roan has more. liverpool's egyptian striker mo salah appears to be have —— being targeted with islamic phobic abuse on monday night at the london stadium and this incident has been ca ptu red stadium and this incident has been captured on video and posted on social media and appears to show a man in the home section of the london stadium during that match targeting salah with racist abuse and both metropolitan police and west ham united have said they are investigating. west ham say there is no place for incidence of this kind

of their homes stadium and are reviewing cctv footage in a bid to identify the person involved and kick it out, the antiracism group have also expressed their dismay on what they describe as the latest high—profile discrimination incident to hit english football this season. there is no doubt it is far from a nicer date —— isolated incident. manchester city's board, a man was accused of racially abusing him. a man at the emirates was arrested after a ba na na man at the emirates was arrested after a banana skin was thrown at arsenal's obamayang and of course, m illwa ll arsenal's obamayang and of course, m illwall fa ns arsenal's obamayang and of course, millwall fans were involved in an incident during an fa cup match when there appeared to be racist charting at everton and that is being investigated as well. the australian government has renewed demands for the release of hakeem al—araibi after confirmation that the thai government has the power to set him

free, just to warn you there's some flash photography coming up. the bahraini footballer is fighting extradition from thailand and says the charges he's facing are politically motivated. he's been convicted of vandalising a police station in bahrain — which he denies — and sentenced to 10 years in prison. he was granted asylum in australia in 2017 but was detained by authorities while on his honeymoon in bangkok last november. he says he'll be tortured if he's forced to go back to bahrain. i have written two letters now to the thai prime minister and our consulate officials and others have been using every opportunity they had to press the case to bring hakeem home. we've also been pressing the case with the governor of bahrain as well and i'd simply say this, it is within the executive authority of the thai government to actually enable him under their law to be returned to australia. i have pointed this out in the engagements

i've had with the thai prime minister. let's bring you up to date with events at the world alpine skiing championships in sweden. a day that he won't forget italy's dominik paris winning the men's super—g gold and bagging himself the first major title of his career. miriam walker—khan was watching the action in ora. after american michaela schiffer and one the super—g, it was time for the european nations to excel. the final countdown was an appropriate start for heavy metal fan countdown was an appropriate start for heavy metalfan dominic countdown was an appropriate start for heavy metal fan dominic harris as he saw his maiden championship gold. the italian has been in superb form this season, winning the super—g as well is the famous downhill. paris stormed down the coast —— the course and made an imposing target, one that wouldn't be eaten. austria's vincent kriek

crossed the line less than one tenth ofa crossed the line less than one tenth of a second slower than paris. it was to be sold off the frenchman as well. a dead heat, quite a rare in ski racing. reigning olympic super—g champion matthia meyer blew his chance, leaving some of his fans out in the cold. that meant paris was the world champion that he was keen to rock out. yeah, paul shaw, it's great, but we have to make it a heavy metal party. —— foreshore. can you sing for us? no, thanks. it was left to the italian supporters to supply the power ballads to toast his success. meanwhile, at the freestyle world championships in utah, great britain's james woods won gold in the men's slopestyle event. after a delay for high winds and heavy snow, woods — who won a bronze

medal two years ago, and silver back in 2013 — beat norway's birk ruud into second place, to claim the first world title of his career, and great britain's first gold medal of the games. the nba's trade deadline is less than 2a hours away — with continued speculation that anthony davis will be leaving new orleans pelicans. davis, who's requested a trade, has been linked with several teams — including la lakers who are said to have offered six players in exchange. david has missed the last eight games with a finger injury — but that's not the reason he won't be playing at chicago later on wednesday. we are not going to play until after the trade deadline. but think you can understand that, everybody can understand that. everything clears up understand that. everything clears up after that, at least for a while and then you can go back to i guess what the new normal is going to be. it's just part of it, you know, it's

pa rt it's just part of it, you know, it's part of the business and you deal with it like you would anything else. that is it for now from the sports team. goodbye. good morning. to sum up today simply, we'd probably call it a day of sunshine and showers. but first thing this morning we do have a spell a very strong winds to contend with across the southern half of the uk. they will ease by the time the rush hour's over, but nonetheless some challenging conditions out there currently. the worst of the winds over i think for the south—west of england and wales by the time we get to 8am. but still a core of strong winds across the south—east, particularly the midlands and east anglia, through the morning rush—hour. those figures in the black circles indicate the gust strengths, notice they're lighter further north, but there will be some snow to contend with across parts of scotland. also, as the rain pulls away

from northern england on the tail—end of this area of low pressure, there could be some snow for a time across the pennines — a couple of centimetres here. but, come the afternoon, the picture looks much clearer, the winds have become much lighter, it's pretty mild in the south, there's a lot of sunshine around, but there will be some showers packing into the far north—west. through the evening a largely fine affair, aside from those showers in the north—west. turns quite chilly across the north—east of scotland. elsewhere, though, as we go into the small hours of friday, the cloud piles in, accompanied by rain and again the wind starts to lift. so, most areas off to a frost—free start to friday. for the north—east of scotland, there could be some ice around, there could also be some snow, too, as this frontal system just starts to bump into that colder air. but this is friday's weather in a nutshell, this area of low pressure. tightly packed isoba rs, windy once again, particularly from the middle part of the day. and those winds could be disruptive and they will remain strong on into saturday. the rain is also going to be quite problematic in some spots as well. not so much across england and wales, where this front continues to push through,

but across a good portion of scotland, where basically one area of rain moves out of the way and then the low hooks another batch in, if you like, so the totals are going to really start to add up. a mild enough day on friday, but a very windy one, with gusts of 50—60mph. the band of rain clears england and wales friday night into saturday, but the low hooks another area of heavy rain across northern ireland, into central scotland. could be wintry for a time as well, the winds certainly still remain strong through saturday, although they will gradually start to ease off a little later in the day. some sunshine around as we get into the afternoon, a little cooler than on friday, particularly in the north as you pick up a north—westerly wind. and then all eyes to the south for sunday, because it looks like we could see a spell of heavy rain pushing into england and wales to bring the weekend to a close. next week, though, high—pressure returns, it's looking quieter once again. a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories:

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