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Black Stars beat Botswana at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations

Black Stars beat Botswana

Posted: Jan 24 2012

Ghana beat Botswana 1-0 in Franceville courtesy of a goal from captain John Mensah in their opening Group D game at the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday.

The Olympique Lyonnais defender has given the Black Stars a positive start as one of the tournament favourites, but took an early shower in the second half following his red card for a professional foul.

The four-time African champions dominated most of the play, especially in the first-half, but were unable to score from some good opportunities.

Ghana were able to find the opening goal in the 25th minute from a dead ball situation when an in-swinging corner missed Gyan’s head at the near post but the ball fell kindly for the unmarked John Mensah to bundle it in with his knee.

The score line remained the same at half-time.

The Zebras returned hoping to overturn the deficit and came close to scoring when Patrick Motsepe's far post header beat Ghana’s goalkeeper Adams Kwarasey but was cleared off the line by Black Stars defender John Boye.

With about 66 minutes of game played, Botswana’s danger man Jerome Ramatlhakwane broke free on goal, but was brought down on the edge of the penalty box by the Ghanaian captain Mensah, who instantly received his marching orders from referee Diatta Badara of Senegal.

It was the southern Africans time to dictate the pace of the game after Mensah was sent off, but their numerous efforts around Ghana’s goalmouth amounted to nothing and the match finished 1-0 to the Ghanaians.

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Ot : 2012-01-24 21:56

So wat do u say bitter south african fans? U must be ashamed of urself becaus u wantd Ghana to score mre goals against Botswana. Eat ur words

Dmt : 2012-01-24 22:15

One thng i realisd about us South Africans is that we are jealous. Thats a fact. Y u sayin al that crap. Our very own Bafana faild to even qualify. Plis people,lets just be realistic. SA is no longer southern Africn powerhouse.

Pulejhb : 2012-01-24 22:43

**** the internet of ful of stupid ass mother****ers. Hw cud u *****s ignore the futballn status btwn ths 2 nations and jump to unnecessary critics. Im beggnin to believ us south africans dnt wanna c other countries progres. Thats bad.

michael: 2012-01-25 00:39

Fellow SOUTHERN AFRICANS let us talk football and stop hauling insults at each other,that does not show the spirit of UBUNTU.People were saying Botswana will undergo a baptism of fire,but it never happened,they were narrowly defeated.Let us rally behind COSAFA teams pliz!

The Ghost: 2012-01-25 01:12

Kante banna where in these posts did any South African wish Botswana to fail? If anything everybody I know was rooting for Botswana to beat Ghana, if anything that is ALWAYS the norm in football as it is in life: Humans have a knack of rooting for the underdog ... so STOP these insults, STOP this hating, and let us ALL for the sake of our region hope that Botswana learn from this games' experience that they cannot afford to suffer from stage fright again and win the next two games in their group, and from there ANYTHING is possible.

moleko: 2012-01-25 07:18

@Ot,i for one was supporting Botswana from the word go,its wrong for you to use the same comb for all SA fans,some of us are behind you and the likes of great Zambia

gotze: 2012-01-25 08:15

mcm Ghana are simply overrated and thats the truth. with this bafana line up we can hammer Ghana: Khune ngcongca sangweni gould yeye midget shabba claasens mphela pienaar. seriously i dnt c anything special with them.

drumzz: 2012-01-25 08:16

come on guys do not generlize, rather adress the one who has problem with us directly cos some of us know southafricans who supports botswana......zebras for life...24/7

Mister not so nice guy: 2012-01-25 08:19

Ot : 2012-01-24 21:56

WTF r u talking about? most SA's are supporting teams from Southern African regions.

Skepe Mketule: 2012-01-25 08:33

sa

Skepe Mketule: 2012-01-25 08:36

Ot : 2012-01-24 21:56

your head need to be examined, we wasted our time knocking off early to support Bots today you are swearing at us.

What we noticed with Bots since they dont have experienced players I would suggest they hire an experienced coach to adjust them quickly in the system

Donald Duck: 2012-01-25 08:49

Not bad 4bostwana, they just gave ghana 2much respect. But I expected ghana 2take 3points, just cause um from sa doesn't mean i should ignore logic, I don't see zebras winning a game in this group with Mali and Guinea to come......

Montel McGee: 2012-01-25 09:17

Yeah,somtymz I don't undastand SA fans,even the print media nd TV,they hv this awkward behaviour and nasty comments bout our Team Botswana,guys swallow Yr pride you didn't make it despite Having all professional athletes in Yr team,but we made it,Futboll is just the game of throwing a dice and it can fall anywhere,that why we Ghana didn't do anything yesterday,,,let's support each other. I do support Bafana so much and I don't remember missing any of their games since 1994...imagine

Montel McGee: 2012-01-25 09:21

Yeah,somtymz I don't undastand SA fans,even the print media nd TV,they hv this awkward behaviour and nasty comments bout our Team Botswana,guys swallow Yr pride you didn't make it despite Having all professional athletes in Yr team,but we made it,Futboll is just the game of throwing a dice and it can fall anywhere,that why we Ghana didn't do anything yesterday,,,let's support each other. I do support Bafana so much and I don't remember missing any of their games since 1994...imagine

SisterP: 2012-01-25 09:26

Ok now these Botswana people are getting into my nerves to think that we were supporting Botswana yesterday.Botswana lost and there is no narrow loss or half loss, they lost. you can not win a game by defending. I wish they lose their next two games now that they have just became big headed.

KRISPEN MAROI: 2012-01-25 09:30

no body expected us (botswana) to win dat game bt a lot of fools expected us to be humiliated by black sperms of ghana..that will neva happen..re ile ntweng..Guinea e maswenyana bt Mali yone re ya go e shaya no doubt abt dat...SA yone e nyetse mo di world cup qualifiers pple like Mphela hv nothing to worry us..NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER...RAGA PITSE RAGA...SHAPAAAAAAAAAAAA

Langa Mos: 2012-01-25 09:38

ot
im disapointed in you man, why do u guys always want to fyt the south africans??they have been with us all the way.come on dude

tsapane: 2012-01-25 09:39

I am certainly not a bitter SA fan. I was rooting for the Zebras and will continue rooting for them. Regarding the game i thought they missed an opportunity to at least salvage a point from the game. I just thought as soon as Ghana got a red card missed an opportunity to stretch Ghana and bring in more crosses. But that is football may they will do better in the next game. I wish them luck

moxjr: 2012-01-25 09:39

SA fans thanx guys for the support.. we heard you guys were 100% fully behind us & we appritiate that.. we tried our best against the champions but we failed to score.. we are hopin for a win on saturday. Thank u SA..zebras for life..

MrLekgowa: 2012-01-25 09:40

Lets stop hate guys, we stand for each other especially ppl frm Bots and SA. This 2 countries share a majority of their history and everything but its like we dont wanna appreciate that we just separated but border line except to be one people!! SA or Zebras am in. PERIOD!! I thot the world cup has brought us to be ONE!!

Itunes22: 2012-01-25 09:52

Yes Ghana are just another team & can be easily beaten,they simply did not live up to their Billing!Holly Crap Football played by Botswana in the 1st stanza!a horrible game plan of frustrating the opposition by being agressive.Apart from 3 shots on target & all in the second half,what else is there to admire of their game plan.Why shy away from the facts & praise such a terrible display!The only few times Botswana could string neat passes was when they were in their own half.As embarrassing as it is for a Nation with Huge Diamond reserves & plays ball when Uncle Tom dictates,the team's kit of the day was an eyesore.Yes apart from one Dreadlocked guy who made some uncomplimented diagonal runs & a defence that was told do nothing else but defend at all cost,they simply played disgusting football.Its proving as well how they got to the Afcon with single goal margins after emphasising on defence & catch an opposition unawares with a poached goal.Denying the public to watch entertaining soccer by playing absolute rubbish!!Not Ipmressed!ICHO!!

lucifer rises: 2012-01-25 10:04

South Africans are bitter. we will meet on the 8th of June and settle this thing between us. just as u missed gabon, u will miss brazil. zebras 4 life.

goms: 2012-01-25 10:08

SIS OS SEMATLA MO GO MASWE, O HELETSE KAE KA BOLO E NTLE, GO SETSE GO KONDEMA DIOTEAM TSE DI KO NATIOSCUPONG OLE KO GA LONA..GONGWE LE TLA TSHAMEKA YA 2016 WHO KNOWS MAYBE BAFANA...BAF

Jomo: 2012-01-25 10:13

Please guys dont paint us with the same brush, I for one was supporting Botswana. I even sent my cousin who is at Botswana an sms wishing his Country the best of luck. In this AFCON , I support southern hemisphere teams.i.e: Botswana,Zambia & Angola.

lucifer rises: 2012-01-25 10:15

South Africans are bitter. we will meet on the 8th of June and settle this thing between us. just as u missed gabon, u will miss brazil. zebras 4 life.

Tzozo: 2012-01-25 10:37

Damn you Botswana idiots ! grow up and behave like men. Why brag about a loss ? I shudder to think what nonsense you were gonna spew had you won the match.

For the record I was 120% behind Botswana regardless of what i might have said in the past. Reason being I'm a mature football fan and I will continue to wish Botswana well in their remaining games.

Having said that does not mean I'm a fool. I don't see Botswana winning a game in this tournament. If you can't score against a team that played with 10 men for more than 20 minutes who are you going to score against ?

Be careful: 2012-01-25 10:40

Ha ha ha....Big mouths Batswana welcome to the real football world
Qualifying has nothing to do with the actual competition
You are your own enemy, you failed yourself because you are poor in everything.......u don't excel in anything.
Shut up....you LOST....ZERO point and ZERO Goal

moxjr: 2012-01-25 10:56

South Africans are jealous, Bitter... u can write more than a page talkin crap bou the mighty Zebras but u cant change the fact that we qualified for AFCON, u guys didnt & We are proud to be Batswana, good or bad, we remain Batswana & basimane ba dira tiro.... BBB****

ketis.2010: 2012-01-25 11:01

Itunes and others who are crucifying the way the zebras played are ignorant. In football when u approach a game you study your opponent and come up with a game plan. Even the great Mourinho deploys the tactic against Barca becos he knows he cant compete with them pound for pound. thats a fact of life. Zebras played to what they believe would work for them, which nearly did. As for not scoring a goal we wont be breaking any record,u must know better about the great Ted Dumitru side. so fellow southerners we should be encouraging each other rather than trading insults.

Mister not so nice guy: 2012-01-25 11:04

I was behind Botswana all the way, but after reading some comments from these Bot stupid ****s, i say Go Zambia!!

Montel McGee: 2012-01-25 11:10

U fellow SAs think u r on top of the world on football,but u r nothin as he'll,it's our first AFCON match and we tried our best with African Powerhouse,gone are the times to support each other,Thts why African never excel in anything the do,coz f jealousy,Americans and other White Europeans will always be ahead of us....re diiiwa ke ditshele and everything.Come on we brothers!!!!

chaxben: 2012-01-25 11:34

wel south africans(black) hav a poor thinkin capacity.whn they comment bout us they forget valuable lesons they learnt in futbol;that 1.teams cn knock u in the first stage when u r a host
2.the Ted Dumitru saga
3.that they luckily get into world competitions by virtue of hosting.
4.that they wrongly read rules and dance for zero...2gthr wt his exellency.
having said ths, i further chalenge em to knw dat the Zebras are a team from a nation that doest knw the taste of a boer kick on the butt and a country dat cnt be matched with the rich(bt ignorant state led by a rapist)SA.thr was a point in time when u guyz ddnt tlk bout us...nid i remind u why u tlk bout us nw?and y the sabc ddnt broadcast our game last nyt?its coz u realise we r a threat to u.remember the friendly that was cancelled on the last minute?got it?

chronic2001: 2012-01-25 11:39

sometimes we have to face facts,i do not see us winning a single game.we are going to miss the speed o mogorosi and koko,some people think our national team is a social club.i realy do like our coach and his approach but lets wait and see.i wonder why he kept moatlhaping in the field he could have played pontsho.i know some people are going to insult me but yestaday's game was our simplest of them all

chronic2001 gaborone,botswana

zebras for life i mean really

Itunes22: 2012-01-25 12:00

@ketis;
There should be no excuses for such a pathetic perfomance!in the middle of the park,Botswana could not even string passes!Zero shots on target in the 1st period & 3 shots OVERALLY,makes no sense at all!even for a team playing for a draw,at such a level Botswana should have taken the game to Ghana,since the best way to defend is to attack.Its a sad story if you Tswanaz think you can progress to the next round,Guinea will havest goals & Mali will make a meal of the Zebras.Obviously Botswana progressed at the expence of more capable teams that would have given the Black Stars & Fans a good run for their money.Its an embarassment to African Football to witness such a display on such a level.So Guys there should be no excuses for a disgusting Display from a country that qualified almost eleven months before the Qualifying ended!!

ramzaah: 2012-01-25 12:44

It doesn't matter whether we don't win any game.We would not be the first team to experience that. We would have learnt from SA that it's possible. It happened to them. So they shud keep quiet.

KBGHa: 2012-01-25 13:37

ok so Botswana lost 1:0 after saying they will annihilate GH....and now have turned the fight on South Africans?...i thought you lost to GH and not SA?.....stay focus Tswana fans .... and i guess thats why we dont have a kickoff.Botswana site......word...

ketis.2010: 2012-01-25 14:13

Itunes
Thought u have a football brain ntwana. obviously i was wrong. how do you advocate for your fancied entertainers to play at AFCON when they did not earn the place. Botswana beat Tunisia twice, Chad twice, Togo 1nce and drew Malawi twice who played the last AFCON. they finished a distant 17 points ahead of Tunisia at 12. How then do u say they are taking somebody s place. I agree yr dancers would have entertained guests at AFCON and unfortunately thats not how u qualify for AFcon. I dont wish to go down yr line n start finger pointing but dude, SA s got to look at the man in the mirror if they want to criticize. By the way whennare you playing INDIA? looking forward to that one.

reffand: 2012-01-25 14:16

This attitude ya some SAs ya gore u better than other Africans is annoying..why le nna bitter? focus on yo failure to qualify.DO u remember how u were celebrating after that game lere u've qualified for these finals, how bout that AFCON when u came back lele 0-0, no point no goal..u've failed wit yo so called entertaining football which is nothing but some stupid township sport. draw yo graph u'll c how u've been performing, very negative gradient.

ramzaah: 2012-01-25 14:37

We are not fighting South Africans. It is just that there are some stupid fellows who are always critisizing our efforts. We don't know why they don't choose their best teams to support and stop bugging on our efforts.

Itunes22: 2012-01-25 15:52

@ketis;
I might definately not have a football mind,but in all fairness i surely know the difference between Amatures & Pro's!Yesterday's game did little to convince anyone that this team deserves to be at the Afcons!scoring 7 goals in 8 games throughout the qualification,far much less than Tunisia in 2nd place who scored 12 in 7 games if not more going to their last game.What are you smoking mate!When did Botswana became good at anything,except breeding Goats & Cows!Is'nt it now that you guys are having a go at Baseball coz Uncle Tom told you to do so.Besides you guys seem to hate South Africans & yet all of you pretend to be South Africans world over,be it the music & all!Not even a single party you do,that you play your own music,whilst drinking South Afican beer for that matter!Grow up WannaBeez!

ketis.2010: 2012-01-25 16:08

I tunes
i will not droop to your level boss. i drop my case, we are no talking football now. i got friends in SA so if i start hurling insults nobody will see the difference between me n you. sorry boss this conversation is over.

cabza: 2012-01-25 16:09

With all due respect i think Cebo and Mafa are the only men in Mzansi who understands futboll and they know that Botswana is improving each and every game and they know how to ****yze a game and the truth is they kno that Bafana Bafana is only good in dancing...South Africa is rich in everything and you have the best futboll facilities but you are below par in playing competitive futboll lyk the Zebras..team e tala e tona ya mo Bots..i only watch South African futboll cauz ke rata go bona bo Myambela ba palama ball and Segolela a taboga unnecessarily...GUYS 2DAYS AFCON IS TOO BIG 4 U AND I THINK YOU SAW YESTERDAY THAT YOU DONN HAVE A CHANCE AND THAT STAGE AND STANDARD IS TOO BIG FOR YOU..DAA GA GO PALAMIWE BALL.....YOU ARE LUCKY CAUZ YOU WILL BE THE HOST KA 2013 SO LE TLA TSENA MAHALA AND KEEP ON KNOWING THAT YOUR TEAM IS SO POOR EXCEPT LETSHOLONYANE.

joemachel: 2012-01-25 16:27

You guys trading insults are very stupid; I am proudly Motswana and dnt tolerate some of the insults directed to the South Africans and even to Batswana. Its totally unnecessary! I think u shud know by now that u cannot force people to lyk u! That doesnt make sense! If the South Africans didnt support us, fyn with me coz as far as i can remember not all Batswana hv supported SA in all their games. Its ok not to be lyked. Ke en le rata botete jaana!

ZEBRAS 4 LYF!

hello: 2012-01-25 16:46

i being motswana ko botswana.ke bua setswana.ghana r ahead of us,they have players who r seasoned in europe..but we have to fight with all what we have..no matter what..y they hate,i still dont understand.SOUTH AFRICANS,black or white,yellow, green,blue ka le mebala..itsoseng..love football..

king zebra: 2012-01-26 11:54

f**ck u all sa, who taking **** . u got non in futball. u just have nice stadiums and all the kind ,, why jelous of ur neibous

king zebra: 2012-01-26 12:01

f**ck u all sa, who taking **** . u got non in futball. u just have nice stadiums and all the kind ,, why jelous of ur neibous

OTIS GAORUTWE: 2012-01-26 13:24

MR EDITER TELL ME,GA MOTHO A GANETSANA LE SEELEELE O LEBEGA E LE SEELEELE.SO BATSWANA PLIZ LEAVE THOSE IDIOTS,THEY HAVE MORE THAN 3 TIMES BA SE KO AFCON FINALS.THEY ARE NOTHING,THEY DONT KNOW HOW TO PLAY FOOTBALL,PERIOD...........

moxjr: 2012-01-26 14:23

#WINNING Team Zebras4Life

Phillip Mhlanga: 2012-01-28 12:04

yaah

Phillip Mhlanga: 2012-01-28 12:05

GUINEA 0 BOTSWANA 2 here we come,South AFRICA you are the Next watch out