Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images-Stanbic

Dede Ayew of Ghana and Mohamed Koffi of Burkina Faso (file photo).

Ghana registered a 2-0 win over Lesotho in a 2014 World Cup qualifier played in Maseru on Sunday afternoon. The win sees the Black Stars seize top spot in the group with 12 points, one more than Zambia who drew with Sudan in Ndola on Saturday.

The West African country opened the account through Christian Atsu who gave the visitors the lead just before the break, and skipper Asamoah Gyan sealed the victory with his 35th international goal fifteen minutes from time. Lesotho dominated the first half while Ghana had control of large portions of the second but could find the way through the Ghana defence.

Atsu powerful header from a free kick gave the West African the lead on the stroke of half time after failing to clear the Sulley Muntari's ball. In the second half Lesotho started as the better side and were once again let down by poor finishing.

Ghana gained the upper hand shortly after their coach Kwesi Appiah made back-to-back changes bringing in Dominic Adiyiah for the rather quiet Boakye-Yiadom, while Emmanuel Badu replaced Rashid Sumaila at the very end.

Kwesi applauded his team for the hard work and dedication to beat the stubborn Lesotho side that is unbeaten in their previous two world cup qualifiers. "Credit should go to the players for the hard work that puts us closer to securing a place in the next year World Cup in Brazil," Appiah said.

"We knew that it would be difficult to get the results playing Lesotho in their own backyard, but we were patient in our build-up and got the results in the end.

Kwesi said the win over Lesotho takes them closer to qualifying to the next World Cup set for Brazil.Lesotho coach-Leslie Notsi said their plan was to try and get results playing at home.

"We gave it a brave fight unfortunately we could not find the goals from the chances we created and lost the match," Notsi said. "It's back to the drawing board for us as we build a team for the future especially the upcoming regional COSAFA Cup.

The Lesotho mentor said he was disappointed to have lost at home especially after playing so well in their previous home matches where they held both Sudan and Zambia to draws. Lesotho is now rooted at the bottom of group D with only two points and will finish the World Cup campaign with the away match to Sudan.