Minnows Guinea-Bissau hold Gabon

LIBREVILLE. — Minnows Guinea-Bissau enjoyed an African Cup of Nations soccer debut to remember as they held the host nation Gabon of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to a surprise 1-1 draw in Libreville on Saturday night.

Juary Soares scored a last-minute equaliser to cancel out the opener from Borussia Dortmund striker Aubameyang at the Stade de l’Amitie in the Group A curtain-raiser.

It is all square in the section after fourtime winners Cameroon had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Burkina Faso in the day’s second game.

That means there is still everything to play for but the final whistle was greeted with jeers from the home support in Libreville, providing a stark contrast MADRID. — Barcelona’s Luis Suarez scored twice and Lionel Messi was also on target as they thrashed Las Palmas 5-0 with a ruthless second-half display at the Nou Camp on Saturday to provisionally go second and cut the gap with Real Madrid to two points.

Uruguay international Suarez scored his 101st Barca goal by stroking in Andre Gomes’ cutback in the 15th minute as the Portuguese midfielder got his first assist since his 35 million euro move from Valencia last summer.

Messi scored for the seventh straight competitive game by pouncing on a loose ball in the 52nd after Rafinha’s shot was parried by goalkeeper Javi Varas, while Suarez curled in a pass by Rafinha for his second and Barca’s third in the 57th.

Suarez spurned the chance to seal a hat-trick a minute later but Arda Turan pounced after Varas saved again to score the fourth, while out-of-favour right back Aleix Vidal netted his first goal for the club in the 80th minute.

Barca are second in the standings, two points behind Real Madrid, who have played two games fewer and face third-placed Sevilla on Sunday. — Reuters. with the joy of the Guinea-Bissau players.

For them, just being at the tournament for the first time in their history is a remarkable achievement and the result saw thousands take to the streets of the capital Bissau to celebrate.

“This is a moment of joy for us. Despite our country’s difficulties we managed to qualify,” said Baciro Cande, the coach of the team known as the “wild dogs”.

Guinea-Bissau fell behind seven minutes into the second half when Denis Bouanga’s low ball to the back post was turned in by Aubameyang for the first goal of the competition.

But Gabon then sat back and were punished in the 90th minute as Soares got in front of Bruno Ecuele Manga to head in a Zezinho free-kick. BARCELONA. — Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu insists ensuring Lionel Messi’s future at the Catalan giants is his top priority after a week littered with embarrassing series of PR own goals for the Spanish soccer champions.

“Renewing Messi’s contract is indispensable to our club,” Bartomeu told Catalan TV station TV3 before Barca’s 5-0 thrashing of Las Palmas on Saturday.

Victory eased a growing sense of unease around the Camp Nou with divisions between the squad and the club’s board over ongoing talks to extend Messi’s contract beyond 2018.

Suarez criticised Barca CEO’s Oscar Grau’s claims that the club must show financial “common sense” in negotiating the Argentine’s new deal, that looks set to make him the world’s highest paid player.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Pere Gratacos was sacked from his role as Barca’s director of institutional relations with the Spanish football federation for claiming Messi “wouldn’t be as good” without the help of his star teammates. — AFP.

“We knew Gabon have an excellent team and the best player in Africa and in Europe,” Cande added.

“We have our limits, but we had ambitions coming here and we will try to go as far as possible.”

It was a stuttering start from Gabon as they bid to win the trophy for the first time but their coach Jose Antonio Camacho insisted: “Our chances of qualifying are the same as if we had won.”

There have been calls from opponents of Gabon’s President Ali Bongo to boycott the tournament amid a social and political crisis in the central African country of 1.8 million people, and the 40 000-capacity ground was not completely full for the occasion.

Bongo was there, however, alongside LONDON. — Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham Hotspur side have demonstrated they are now capable of sustaining an English Premier League soccer title challenge after falling just short last season.

Spurs faded in the final weeks last season, finishing third on the final day of the campaign after pushing eventual champions Leicester close for much of the second half of the season.

But Pochettino is convinced his players have learned from that experience and after moving up to second place following a one-sided 4-0 defeat of West Bromwich Albion on Saturday — their sixth successive league win — believes they can close the seven-point gap on leaders Chelsea.

“We need to move on and try to fight but now we have more belief,” said Pochettino.

“We are much better than last season. We are showing that we have learnt a lot from last season, we are more mature. Today we did not concede a goal.”

Pochettino’s side ended Chelsea’s run of 13 successive league wins when they beat Antonio Conte’s side in their last league outing. — AFP. his counterpart from Guinea-Bissau, Jose Mario Vaz, and Issa Hayatou, the Cameroonian veteran head of the Confederation of African Football.

Cameroon’s own tournament build-up had been overshadowed by a raft of withdrawals by key players, including Liverpool defender Joel Matip and Schalke striker Eric Choupo-Moting.

New captain Benjamin Moukandjo gave them the lead against Burkina Faso with a fine free-kick 10 minutes before half-time.

Christian Bassogog then looked set to double Cameroon’s lead as he raced clean through on goal but Burkina Faso ‘keeper Herve Koffi came flying out of his area and denied him with a crunching challenge. — AFP. LONDON. — West Ham manager Slaven Bilic couldn’t resist a dig at want-away star Dimitri Payet following the impressive 3-0 win over English Premier League soccer strugglers Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The 48-year-old Croat said his players had been “magnificent” and showed it was more about the team than any individual player as they ended a streak of three games without a win or a goal.

Payet — whose photograph outside the ground had to be guarded by a steward and the fans normal laudatory chant of him was replaced by more abusive terms — has said he wants to leave and won’t play for them.

His former club Marseille is believed to want to re-sign him for £20 million but co-owner David Sullivan wrote in the matchday programme they will not grant the 29-year-old’s demand to move.

“Payet is a great player so you are losing quality, but the team showed it is about the team and not individuals.

This is a great example for that,” said Bilic. — AFP.