Samuel Eto'o made history today by becoming the top scorer in the history of the African Cup Of Nations finals. He scored Cameroon's first goal of the game against Sudan from the penalty spot to take his total to 15. He then netted a second and Cameroon's third in the closing minutes to make the grand total of 16. Cameroon won the game 3-0 and classify for the quarter finals. 

Eto'o's first African Cup was in 2000 which took place in Ghana and Nigeria. Eto'o scored four goals in the tournament: one in the group stage 3-0 win over Ivory Coast, one in the 3-0 quarter-final win against Algeria, one in the semi final victory over Tunisia also by 3-0, and one in the 2-2 draw with Nigeria in the final, Cameroon won the trophy on penalties.

In Mali 2002, Eto'o only managed one goal in the ...

Barça lost two vital points in their visit to San Mames thanks to their failure to score a second goal. Bojan Krkic put Barça ahead in the 35th minute but an own goal from Lilian Thuram in the 79th minute left Barça regretting their lack of fire power. Frank Rijkaard will no doubt be questioned for leaving out Abidal and Milito especially as Athletic's goal came down the left-hand side.

Rijkaard also decided to play the three pequeños in midfield and after just two minutes the lack of a strong defensive midfielder was evident when Orbaiz was allowed to shoot unchallenged from 25 yards forcing Valdés into a diving save. Barça were imprecise in the early minutes and didn't come close to Athletic's goal until the 17th minute when Messi received a throw-in and turned inside befor...

Toure Yaya and Ivory Coast have qualified for the quarter finals of the African Cup Of Nations beating Benin 4-1 in Sekandi while Nigeria and Mali drew 0-0. Toure had another good game, setting up the first goal for Didier Drogba and then scoring the second after good work from his brother Kolo. Toure will now definitely miss Barça's game next week against Osasuna. However, Samuel Eto'o will be coming home early if Cameroon lose tomorrow's crucial game with Zambia in Kumasi.

See Toure's goal here

Samuel Eto'o leaves tomorrow to join up with the Cameroon national team for the African Cup of Nations, but he left us with two goals to let us remember what we will be missing. Thierry Henry had probably his best game at Camp Nou setting up two of the second half goals.

Frank Rijkaard gave a rest to Abidal, Milito and Iniesta which meant a start for Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram in defence. Rafa Marquez was given the defensive midfield role, and Bojan Krkic started on the right side of the attack. Eto'o and Henry changed positions to great effect throughout the match

The game started evenly with both sides creating chances in the first ten minutes. Samuel Eto'o had two early attempts on goal, first with a speculative shot on five minutes and then two minutes later he forced Murc...

Barça earned a valuable 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Copa del Rey tie with Sevilla tonight in the Sanchez Pizjuan. Thierry Henry, who is beginning to look like the striker Barça hoped for, scored the opener after 24 minutes, but poor defending at a corner just before half time allowed Capel the space to equalize.

Frank Rijkaard kept faith in Giovani dos Santos in the starting lineup, and Iniesta moved back into midfield in place of Gudjohnsen in order to allocate Henry in attack. Both the Frenchman and the Mexican gave hard-working battling performances, the type of thing we usually expect from Samuel Eto'o who had a somewhat quiet game.

Perhaps the best game of the night for Barça came from Edmilson who apart from a mistake in the first minute that led to Luis Fabian...

Before tonight's game there had been an exchange of declarations between Samuel Eto'o and Frank Rijkaard. Eto'o claimed that Barça just had to win, it didn't matter how; Rijkaard replied, reminding Eto'o of Barça's style, by saying that you don't lose when you play well. Barça's performance tonight gave the impression that the team had been listening to Eto'o more than to Rijkaard.

For the first hour, this was a very poor game, defences were easily on top and neither goalkeeper had needed to make a difficult save. Then out of the blue, Rafa Marquez headed in a Xavi corner and suddenly Barça were in control. A fine shot from Eto'o in injury time gave Barça a slightly flattering 0-2 scoreline at the end.

The first half was extremely dull, Güiza had a half chance for Mallorca on 9 minutes...

Two goals in the last 25 minutes gave Alcoyano a deserved 2-2 draw tonight in the second leg of the Copa del Rey tie. Santi Ezquerro had started the night well for Barça scoring twice in the first ten minutes. Barça progress to the last sixteen of the competition thanks to their 0-3 win in the first leg.

More than anything this game demonstrated what is wrong with the Copa del Rey format. By seeding the big teams and playing these ties over two legs you are bound to get meaningless games like this. Once Barça had gone 2-0 up on the night (5-0 in the tie) they were always going to relax. The final result will only serve to increase the general feeling of doom that many fans are expressing. At least tonight Ronaldinho can't be blamed.

Barça played reasonably well in the first half wit...

2007 was not a great year for Barça and we are all feeling pretty lousy since losing to Real Mierda last week. Nevertheless, life goes on and as we are reaching the end of the year I thought it would be appropriate to have an awards thing in order to look back at the best, and in some cases worst, of the year. 

Best Player Of 2007: There were only two candidates for this award, Andres Iniesta and Leo Messi. Iniesta has been fantastic all year, playing in various different positions and performing consistently well in all of them. He seems to get better every year and hopefully he will be around for a long long time. However, the genius that is Leo Messi has to win this award. There have been a number of great players at Barça in recent years and Messi ...

For the second time in a week Barça had to come from behind after conceding an early goal. In an entertaining encounter, Da Silva had put Stuttgart ahead after just two minutes but Giovani dos Santos equalized before half time and second half goals from Samuel Eto'o and Ronaldinho kept Barça's 100% home record intact.

The only bad news for Barça was that Deco pulled out of the game after noticing a twinge during the warm-up, his place was taken by Xavi. At the moment I've heard no further news on Deco but it seems he didn't play as a precaution, hopefully he will be OK for Saturday's visit to Valencia.

Just as in Sunday's game with Deportivo Barça conceded a very early goal, and once again the goalkeeper might have done more to save it. Milito gave away a free kick 25 yards out, Da Silva...

A penalty converted by Ronaldinho Gaucho and a second half goal from Xavi Hernandez gave Barça a narrow victory over a hard working Deportivo at Camp Nou tonight. The game was not pretty but Barça fans will be delighted with the return to the team of Samuel Eto'o and Deco.

Eto'o played from the beginning and battled for 63 minutes before Frank Rijkaard substituted him for Bojan. Deco came on in the second half for a disappointing Zambrotta, and played at a decent level, Barça definitely benefitted from the reshuffle that his entrance produced.

Barça began the game with Rafa Marquez playing just in front of the defence, with Xavi and Iniesta also in midfield. Ronaldinho returned to the team, as did Zambrotta which meant Puyol moved back to central defence alongside Gabi Milito....