GABORONE, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Botswana the Zebras beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in a friendly match that was part of the country's Independence Day celebrations on Monday.
The only goal of the match came through winger Lemponye Tshireletso two minutes after halftime, who stroke home a low pile drive that the Burkina Faso goalkeeper was unable to deal with.
Botswana, using only local based players who are relatively inexperienced, managed to hold their ground by dominating most of the possession in the opening half of the game at the National Stadium.
Botswana managed to penetrate the visitors' defence creating more goal scoring chances in the half but could not hit the target. Tshireletso broke the deadlock on the 47th minute following a neat exchange of passes with striker Tebogo Sembowa.
The visitors tied to find the equalizer but were denied by some good goalkeeping from Botswana keeper Michael Pepukani. The home side also did not sit back after the goal as they continued pushing numbers upfront to try and increase their tally.
Botswana had two good chances to score deep into injury time but missed the goal by inches on both occasions.
Botswana coach Stanley Tshosane was sent off 10 minutes before the end of the game for protesting to the match officials.
Burkina Faso used the match to prepare for their crucial 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Algeria in October. Botswana on the other hand is out of any remaining official competitions at least until September 2014 when they start qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Coach Tshosane has told the local media he intends to build a new team that would be able to qualify for the continental showpiece.