Lionel Messi
“Lionel Messi grabbed his 100th Barcelona goal as Pep Guardiola’s side went some way to overcoming this week’s Copa del Rey exit at the hands of Sevilla as they beat the Andalusians 4-0 in the sides’ league meeting at the Nou Camp. Sevilla keeper Andres Palop was the hero on Wednesday night as Barca failed to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the home leg and crashed out of the competition on the away-goals rule.” (ESPN)

FC Barcelona Thrash Sevilla; FC Barcelona – 4, Sevilla – 0
“An excellent second half performance saw Barca extract revenge on Sevilla for the Copa Del Rey dissappointment with a sublime 4-0 victory. Earlier on the night Real Madrid were defeated by Athletic Bilbao and that means with this victory we have opened a lead of five points at the top. Barca opened the account courtesy of an own goal by Escude, Pedro then doubled the lead and in the last five minutes Messi grabbed two to complete the tally.” (All About FC Barcelona)

FC Barcelona 4-0 Sevilla – Recap and Video Highlights – La Liga – Saturday, January 16, 2010
“FC Barcelona played Sevilla for the third time in less than two weeks on Saturday, January 16, 2010. The previous two were in the Copa del Rey with Saturday’s match taking place in La Liga. With Real Madrid’s loss earlier in the evening, Barcelona could extend their lead to five points at the top of the table.” (The 90th Minute)

““Mancini really is magic,” proclaims The Sun newspaper, and others agree. Since Roberto Mancini replaced Mark Hughes as manager of Manchester City, the world’s richest football club, City have won four games straight. There are whispers that the flaxen-haired Italian might even win the Premier League. Stefan Szymanski and I argue in our book Soccernomics that few club managers have any effect on their teams’ performances.” (FI – Simon Kuper)

“Being of Haitian descent, this earthquake has hit home with young American striker Jozy Altidore. He has uncles and family in Haiti, and over the years has maintained a closeness with the country through charitable works and donations.” (The Offside)

“Nigeria reignited their African Nations Cup hopes with a narrow victory over Benin in an entertaining game in Benguela. Ayegbeni Yakubu’s spot-kick four minutes before the break was enough to separate the sides. Nigeria are now level on points at the top of Group C with Egypt, who face Mozambique later. Benin are rock-bottom.” (ESPN)

Celebrations on the streets as joy takes place of gloom
“The saga of Togo’s withdrawal from the tournament rumbled on in a blizzard of voltes-face and misinformation. First the players had decided to stay after last Friday’s terrorist attack, then their prime minister had told them to go, then Emmanuel Adebayor said they would go even though they wanted to stay, then the sports minister said they could stay, but only if they were first to go and observe three days of mourning.” (Independent)

Malawi on the verge of football history in Angola
“Malawi’s squad know they stand on the brink of history ahead of Monday’s final Group A clash with Mali in the Angolan city of Cabinda. After the red-hot opening day victory over Algeria, when the tournament outsiders thumped the World Cup finalists 3-0, a win will take the Flames to the quarter-finals.” (BBC)

Gabon 0 – 0 Tunisia
“Gabon added a 0-0 draw with Tunisia to their opening win against Cameroon as they put themselves within touching distance of the African Nations Cup quarter-finals. There was little between the two sides in this Group D encounter at the Nossa Senhora do Monte and a draw was a fair result.” (ESPN)

Tony Baffoe talks Africa Cup of Nations
“BBC Fast Track’s Farayi Mungazi puts listeners questions on the Africa Cup of Nations to the former Ghana international Tony Baffoe.” (BBC)

African Nations Cup – 2010
(ESPN)

“Coaches Henk Ten Cate and Otto Rehhagel discovered the true meaning of losing and winning in Greece. Panathinaikos boss Ten Cate was sacked following a 2-0 loss at arch-rivals Olympiakos – a defeat that cost his team top spot in the league – and national team supremo Rehhagel found a shock 1-0 win in Ukraine restored the Euro 2004 winner to the status of local hero.” (World Soccer)

“Pele’s oft-cited prediction, made in 1977, that ‘an African nation will win the World Cup by the year 2000’ is, apparently, apocryphal: he has repeatedly claimed his words were twisted and taken out of context. Nevertheless, it endures, both as a spectacularly errant prophecy (no African team has made it beyond the quarterfinal stage of the competition) and as evidence that the continent has been punching below its weight.” (WSJ)