Burkina Faso beats Botswana ahead of Afcon that kicks off today
The Stallions played both their warm-up matches in Mbombela this past week.
It must have been their rigorous training during the 10 days leading up to Tuesday’s match against Botswana, but Burkina Faso’s soccer players looked knackered in the last 30 minutes of their Afcon warm-up match at Mbombela Stadium.
The Stallions strikers missed two sitters in front of goal before 15 minutes were up, but at last in the 27th minute Jonathan Zongo fired a shot home. Aristide Bance scored another goal two minutes later but that was that for the total goal tally.
Burkina Faso dominated the match in the first half. Yet Botswana Zebras didn’t give up and held the Afcon 2013 runners-up to their two-goal lead throughout. The number of yellow cards was indicative of the players’ frustration; both sides got served on numerous occasions, especially in the second half.
But for at least 20 minutes in the second half Burkina barely saw the ball, with Botswana controlling the match almost completely.
Unfortunately their strikers remained off target. And when Botswana had a man sent off towards the end of the game, the 11-man Burkina side still failed to make a breakthrough.
Midfielder Zongo stayed on throughout the match and attempted to give the Zebras a run for their money. But it came to naught with the players from both teams looking spent just past half-time. The heat and humidity experienced in Mbombela on Tuesday helped nobody.
• Burkina Faso plays Gabon in their Group A contest today. They have been drawn with Equatorial Guinea and Congo-Brazzaville in a group.
South Africa’s Bafana Bafana kicks off their Afcon against World Cup contestants Algeria on Monday. They will face Ghana and Senegal in their group.
See more pictures from the match here.
