Highlights

Barcelona Femení's remarkable 2021-22 season continued Wednesday with a 5-0 victory over Sporting Huelva at Johan Cruyff Stadium. Dutch winger Lieke Martens has been the star of the show recently, and she went top of the Primera División scoring chart with a hat trick after 73 minutes before also assisting on an Alexia Putellas goal.

The first Martens goal was a right-footed volley in the 34th-minute that was hit with too much power for goalkeeper Chelsea Ashurst to deal with.

YAOUNDE - Hosts Cameroon overcame another hesitant start to crush Ethiopia 4-1 on Thursday and advance to the next stage of the Africa Cup of Nations with their second successive Group A victory.

Captain Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko-Ekambi both scored twice as Cameroon turned in a strong second-half performance and advanced to six points after also winning their opening game against Burkina Faso.

LIMBE, Cameroon — Mali completed a 1-0 victory over Tunisia in a controversial Group F game at the Africa Cup of Nations that was ended prematurely by referee Janny Sikazwe, who later tried to play the final four minutes only for the north Africans to refuse.

Zambian Sikazwe, who officiated at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, initially blew for the final whistle on 85 minutes as he got his timekeeping all wrong.

But after playing on, he then repeated the error when he blew for fulltime once more before the clock had ticked over to the 90 minutes.

Relegation-threatened Reading got absolutely hammered by promotion hopefuls Fulham in the Championship on Tuesday — losing 7-0 at the Madejski to braces from Harry Wilson and Aleksandar Mitrović and further goals from Kenny Tete, Neeskens Kebano and Tosin Adarabioyo. 

In a poetically fitting way, Reading's 33-year-old striker Andy Carroll also had two outrageous efforts ruled out for being clearly offside. 

YAOUNDE — Aaron Boupendza’s strike from a narrow angle sealed a dull 1-0 win for Gabon over Africa Cup of Nations debutants Comoros Islands in their opening Group C clash on Monday.

Gabon, which was missing talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and influential midfielder Mario Lemina due to COVID-19 infections, never looked troubled and scored from one of only a few shots on target at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo.

Ah, the glory of international tournaments. Instead of a crushing start to the week, Monday gave us the simple pleasure of coffee and watching Senegal — one of the clear favorites in Cameroon — begin its Africa Cup of Nations campaign against underdog Zimbabwe.