Sao Tome e Principe, an island state of 200,000 inhabitants off the Gabon coast, shocked Ethiopia 1-0 Thursday in the first leg of a 2018 World Cup qualifier.

Portugal-born Luis Leal scored three minutes from time at Estadio National 12 de Julho in Sao Tome to give the fourth weakest African national team by rankings an unexpected victory.

Ethiopia, 85 places above the Saotomeans in the world rankings, host the second leg of the first-round tie in Addis Ababa Sunday with a match-up against Congo Brazzaville at stake.

Leal, a 28-year-old striker on loan to Belenenses of Portugal from Apoel of Cyprus, rewarded an impressive performance by a country with some unhappy World Cup memories.

Sao Tome were overwhelmed 5-0 at home by Congo Brazzaville in a 2014 qualifier and crumbled 8-0 away to Libya in an earlier competition.

The islanders faced Ethiopia desperate to shake off poor Africa Cup of Nations form with a 7-1 away drubbing from Cape Verde last June followed by a 3-0 home loss to Morocco a month ago.

Ethiopia had produced more satisfactory results in the same competition, winning at home against Lesotho and drawing in the Seychelles.

But the Sao Tome setback is sure to spark criticism of coach Yohannes Sahle for dumping strikers Salahdin Said, Getaneh Kebede and Oumed Oukri.

Said was a key figure in the 2014 qualifiers when Ethiopia exceeded expectations by reaching the play-offs before losing to Nigeria.

Liberia were held 1-1 by lower-ranked Guinea Bissau on an artificial pitch at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia.

William Jebor converted a 36th-minute penalty for the Lone Stars and Malado Reld Anido levelled 63 minutes into the West African showdown.

It was a disappointing result for Liberia coach and former national star James Debbah, who adopted an all-out attack approach in the hope of building a commanding advantage.

Guinea-Bissau were coached by Portuguese Paulo Torres as a recently imposed four-match Cup of Nations ban for insulting a referee did not extend to World Cup qualifiers.

World Cup debutants South Sudan drew 1-1 at home to Mauritania in a match that took 19 hours to complete in Juba.

Torrential rain forced play to be suspended, then abandoned Wednesday with the score 1-1 after 10 minutes.

Boubacar Bagili put Mauritania ahead after three minutes and Dominic Abui Pretino equalised two minutes later.

There are another three first-leg qualifiers Friday with Somalia forced to host Niger in Ethiopia because of violence, Djibouti at home to Swaziland and Gambia hosting Namibia.

Collated World Cup first round, first leg qualifying results in Africa Thursday:

At Monrovia

Liberia 1 (Jebor 36-pen) Guinea-Bissau 1 (Anido 63)

At Sao Tome

Sao Tome e Principe 1 (Leal 87) Ethiopia 0

At Juba

South Sudan 1 (Pretino 5) Mauritania 1 (Bagili 3)

Played Wednesday

At Moroni

Comoros 0 Lesotho 0

At Roche Caiman, Seychelles

Seychelles 0 Burundi 1 (Abdul Razak 15)

At Dar es Salaam

Tanzania 2 (Samatta 19, Ulimwengu 23) Malawi 0

At Bellevue, Mauritius

Mauritius 2 (Sophie 66-pen, J. Bru 78) Kenya 5 (Omolo 18, 82, Masika 23, Shakava 49, Olunga 87)

- AFP