Advantage as Zebras look to improve Lobatse record
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday May 20, 2014 16:08
The national side held Burundi to a score less draw in Bujumbura on Sunday and now Peter Butler’s charges must fully use home ground advantage when they welcome the East Africans in a fortnight. The Botswana Football Association (BFA) has announced that the match would be played in Lobatse as the National Stadium is unavailable. The new stadium has never been a happy hunting ground for the Zebras who have only won there once in three official matches. One of the loses - against Ethiopia - was however over turned on a technicality.
The most recent heartbreak for the Zebras in Lobatse is a 4-1 humiliation from Swaziland in a friendly early this month. The Zebras have lost three times in four matches at the venue, conceding 12 goals and scoring six.
Against Burundi, the Zebras must win to sail through. On Sunday, Butler made a bold move when he threw in untested midfielder, Lebogang Ditsele to partner the seasoned Ofentse Nato.
Butler spoke glowingly about the 19-year-old after the heavy defeat to Swaziland.
He did not hesitate to throw the youngster into the deep end in a game in which the Zebras had to play the better part with 10 men after the first half dismissal of towering defender, Oscar Ncenga.
The winner of the Burundi-Botswana duel will meet Guinea Bissau or Central Africa Republic in the next round. The two sides also drew 0-0 in the first leg.
Elsewhere in the preliminaries, Mozambique booked their place in the next round with a merciless 5-0 rout of minnows, South Sudan. Malawi are also looking good after overcoming Chad 2-0, while there is work for Zimbabwe who trail 1-0 from their trip to Tanzania.
Full preliminary round results:
Malawi 2 Chad 0; Sao Tome e Principe 0 Benin 2; Namibia 1 Congo 0; Mauritania 1
Equatorial Guinea 0; Central African Republic 0 Guinea-Bissau 0; Swaziland 1 Sierra Leone 1; Mozambique 5 South Sudan 0; Madagascar 2 Uganda 1; Burundi 0 Botswana 0; Tanzania 1 Zimbabwe 0; Liberia 1 Lesotho 0; Kenya 1 Comoros 0; Libya 0 Rwanda 0.