JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s national football team made amends for their midweek loss to Nigeria with a 2-0 win over Burkina Faso in the Nelson Mandela Challenge at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
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The hosts never looked like losing this encounter and took a 1-0 lead into the break thanks to Siphiwe Tshabalala, before Luyolo Nomandela added a second in second-half extra time.
Bafana were determined to win back some pride and were on the offensive right from the off, with David Mathebula blazing his effort over the bar in the sixth after a terrific back-heel from Bongani Zungu put him through on goal.
The home side continued to test and probe and finally got the breakthrough in the 22nd minute, when Tshabalala showed some neat skills to turn his marker before firing his driving shot into the bottom-left corner.
Bernard Parker then forced a brilliant save four minutes later, before Reneilwe Letsholonyane struck the post with cracking effort from distance on the verge of half-time.
Gordon Igesund’s men showed no signs of letting up after the break and Parker nearly doubled the lead 13 minutes after the restart with a header, before Tshabalala curled a fantastic effort over the cross-bar.
Debutant Marc Van Heerden then rattled the crossbar with a screaming effort from the free kick.
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The visitor’s had the chance to draw level six minutes from time, but Adama Zerbo’s effort sailed well wide of goal.
Then, two minutes into added time at the end of the match, Nomandela seemed to get the final touch, when Lerato Chabangu’s effort rolled onto the goal-line in a goalmouth scramble.
