Thousands of Batswana supporters who came to the National Stadium to watch the Zebras against visiting Mozambique in the 2010 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifier left the stadium with heavy hearts after watching the home side go down 1-0 to the Mambas.

The defeat means the Zebras finished the qualifiers at rock-bottom of group seven, with only five points. The supporters who came hoping their side would redeem their dented pride left disappointed as the Zebras huffed and puffed throughout the encounter.

The home side hardly had a shot at goal, reducing home-ground advantage to zilch.

A fact that emerged clearly in Saturday's encounter is that while the defenders fought hard to keep the visitors at bay, altogether the Zebras lacked creativity.

This was not helped by poor distribution from goalkeeper Modiri Marumo. The Zebras will now watch from the sidelines as 20 countries battle it out in round three of the qualifiers next year and could stay long without tasting competitive football.

Disaster struck the Zebras in the seventh minute when some schoolboy defending allowed Eugino Bila to bury the ball into the roof of the net, giving goalkeeper Marumo no chance.

As the Zebras struggled to recover from the setback, the technical bench did not come up with anything to change the complexion of the game.

While it was clear that Joel Mogorosi was fighting hard on the right flank, the technical bench left him unaided for the entire game. Second half substitutions Malepa 'Chippa' Bolelang and Dirang Moloi did not have enough time to swing the game in the hosts' favour. Only Pontsho Moloi brought life to the Zebras whenever he was in possession and at times was let down by his team-mates who could not connect with the perfect balls he brought into the box.

Bila proved to be a menace to Botswana and once again came close to scoring in the 18th minute, his effort missing by a whisker. Mambas' Simao Mate Junior also came close in the 22nd minute as they continued to harass the Zebras.

In the second half, Marumo nearly cost the Zebras when he mis-kicked a pass from Mompati Thuma but the visitors failed to take advantage in the 59th minute.

A minute later, Marumo did well to leave his goalline and used his legs to deny dangerous forward Dario Monteiro. As the Zebras tried to fight their way into the game, Batswana were denied a penalty after Mambas' defenders seemed to have handled in the box.

Pontsho Moloi continued to mesmerise his opponents but could not find the decisive equaliser.After the game, Zebras' coach Stanley Tshosane said he was happy with the performance of his team, though they lost the game.

"I introduced a new system and were unfortunate that we conceded an early goal. Once again, the problem of scoring haunted us and I believe that we need more friendly games to try to solve the problem," he said.

Mambas' coach Mart Nooy said they had anticipated a tough game from the Zebras because playing in Africa is not an easy thing. "We came here for a good result and I am happy we achieved that," he concluded.