SANTIAGO — Mexico and Bolivia were booed off the pitch after playing out a drab goalless draw in their opening match of the Copa America Friday, leaving host Chile top of Group A after the first round of matches. Bolivia hit the post through Ricardo Pedriel with its first real attack, and Mexican stiker Raul Jimenez should have scored after the break with a close range header, but otherwise neither side created much in the way of clear-cut chances. The Mexicans also had a penalty appeal turned down late on after Javier Aquino went down under pressure from Alejandro Pinedo. While on balance a draw looked to be a fair result, it was greeted by whistles and boos at the Sausalito Stadium in Vina del Mar at the final whistle. Mexico has never defeated Bolivia at the Copa America in three attempts, though it has beaten it in each of their nine encounters in other competitions and friendlies. The Mexicans now face Chile in Santiago Monday while Bolivia meets Ecuador in Valparaiso on the same day. Chile beat Ecuador 2-0 in the tournament opener Thursday. “We know that Chile are coming off the back of a victory that will give them a bit of confidence, and they have some quality players, but so do we, and we're going to work hard to beat them,” Mexico striker Jesus Corona said. Hat trick by Chikhaoui Tunisia's Yassine Chikhaoui scored a hat trick in the first 25 minutes as they made a winning start to the African Nations Cup qualifying campaign with an 8-1 thumping of Djibouti. There was also success for Morocco, which edged Libya 1-0, but tiny Swaziland stunned Guinea in Friday's other match with a 2-1 win away to this year's Nations Cup quarterfinalists. Tunisia captain Chikhaoui converted a ninth-minute penalty and added two more goals in two minutes to put Tunisia 3-0 up after 23 minutes in a one-sided match against the small Red Sea state at the Rades stadium, just outside the capital. Ferjani Sassi made it 4-0 by halftime with Saber Khalifa, Fakhreddine Ben Youssef, Maher Hannachi and Yoann Touzghar adding four more goals in the second half. Djibouti got their consolation from the penalty spot through Mohamed Liban. Morocco's Omar El Kaddouri scored a 51st minute goal to give it a 1-0 home win over Libya in Agadir and a winning start to its bid to reach the 2017 finals in Gabon. But in nearby Casablanca, Swaziland upset Guinea in a horror debut for former France World Cup great Luis Fernandez. Diminutive attacker Tony Tsabedze scored both goals for the small southern African kingdom in a Group L clash, hosted in Morocco because Guinea is banned from staging international matches following the Ebola outbreak in the country. Guinea's defeat capped a bad first week in charge for new coach Fernandez, who banned five players from internationals for failing to heed his call-up. Each of the 13 group winners qualify along with the two best placed runners-up. — Agencies
