Author: Chronicle Editor

Barcelona overcame the absence of top scorer Lionel Messi to cut Real Madrid’s La Liga lead to two points with a comfortable win at Granada. Luis Suarez’s exquisite lob just before half-time opened the scoring before on-loan Chelsea midfielder Jeremie Boga equalised with a composed finish. Paco Alcacer restored Barca’s lead before Uche Agbo was sent off for two yellow cards. Ivan Rakitic’s deflected finish made it 3-1 before Neymar scored the fourth. Relive the action as Barca ease to victory against Granada Barca get the job done without Messi There was pressure on Luis Enrique’s side to deliver without…

Roger Federer overcame long-term rival Rafael Nadal to win the Miami Open for the third time and continue his remarkable start to the season. The 35-year-old built on January’s Australian Open win and his March Indian Wells success with a convincing 6-3 6-4 win over the Spaniard. The pair shared 10 break points in the opening set, with Federer the only man to take one to crucially move 5-3 up. He exuded control throughout, breaking at 4-4 in the second and serving out. A sweeping backhand down the line in the final game summed up the confidence which poured from…

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says that eligible candidates for its 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) can now purchase the pin for registration using the Remita platform. The board said on Sunday the development came on the heels of the reported challenges the candidates faced in an attempt to acquire the pins from NIPOST and the designated banks. The Head of Information of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said the board had noted the many headaches of prospective candidates from various parts of the country, including Lagos. He said that candidates had lamented the difficulties involved in obtaining…

Celtic have won a sixth consecutive Scottish Premiership title with eight games to spare after thrashing Hearts 5-0 at Tynecastle on Sunday. Brendan Rodgers’ side needed three points against fifth-placed Hearts to be confirmed as champions after Aberdeen hammered Dundee on Friday. And they did so with a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair and goals from Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts. Unbeaten Celtic have dropped just four points so far during their campaign. “My job when I came in was to win it in the best way we possibly could,” said Rodgers. “We have had many outstanding performances, but we have…

Real Madrid moved five points clear at the top of La Liga with 10 games remaining after overcoming Alaves to record a fourth straight league win. Karim Benzema put Zinedine Zidane’s side on course for victory after meeting Dani Carvajal’s fine cut-back. Deyverson and Edgar wasted chances to equalise for Alaves before two goals in three minutes sealed the points. Isco made it 2-0 before Nacho headed home after Gareth Bale’s free-kick had rebounded off the bar into his path. Lacklustre Real get the job done Despite a victory which nudged Real closer to their first league title since 2012,…

Manchester City twice gave up the lead to draw 2-2 away to Arsenal in the Premier League, frustrating the ambitions of both teams. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal went some way to answering their critics by twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday, but securing Champions League qualification appears increasingly unlikely for the Gunners, as intense speculation over the manager’s future continues. City led twice through goals from Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero at Emirates Stadium, only for Pep Guardiola’s men to surrender their advantage on each occasion and miss an opportunity…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Sunday reiterated its determination to sustain the provision of foreign exchange with a view to ensuring liquidity in the market and enhance accessibility and affordability for genuine end users. The apex bank’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement said the bank wants to disabuse the notion by market speculators that it wouldn’t be able to sustain its forex intervention. He said that the bank would again, early this week, inject more foreign exchange into the market, leading to a further weakening of the dollar. “This is in addition to…

Police in Pakistan have confirmed the arrest of a shrine custodian and two others for allegedly murdering twenty devotees in the country’s Punjab province. Local Police officer Shaukat Manzor told newsmen that Abdul Waheed, a custodian of the Muhammad Gujjar shrine drugged the victims before beating them with sticks,stabbing them to death and handing himself in. There were no survivors in the incident which occurred in the tiny village of Chak, 160km West of Lahore outside the city of Sarghoda. Speaking with journalists a doctor at a Sarghoda hospital Pervaiz Haider indicates that he observed that a good number of…

Twenty people were murdered and four others wounded at a Pakistani Sufi shrine early Sunday by men wielding batons and knives, police said. Four women were among those killed at the Shrine of Mohammad Ali in Punjab province, according to police, who said they had arrested three suspects including the shrine’s custodian. “The 50-year-old shrine custodian Abdul Waheed has confessed that he killed these people because he feared that they had come to kill him,” regional police chief Zulfiqar Hameed told AFP. “The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control…

Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be a deputy of Islamic State, ISIS, leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an air strike on Friday, an Iraqi intelligence spokesman said on Saturday. The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the information that was reported earlier in the day by Iraqi state-run TV. Jumaili was killed with other ISIS commanders in a strike carried out by the Iraqi air force in the region of al-Qaim, near the border with Syria, a military intelligence spokesman told Reuters. “The air force’s planes executed with accuracy a strike on…