Tunisia Carthage Eagles barely held out to salvage a goalless draw with a Botswana team, who deserved more in this AFCON qualifier in Francistown on Sunday afternoon.
The Carthage Eagles are now top of their qualifying group with four points from two matches as Libya, who beat Botswana 1-0 in their opening game, are away to Equatorial Guinea on Monday.
Goalkeepers Bechir Ben Said and Phoko Goitseone were the star men of the match, as both made brilliant saves in the first and second-halves to make sure that the game remained goalless to the end.
Tunisia looked the better of the two teams in the opening 15 minutes, while Zebras were very shaky in defence, making silly mistakes that could have cost them the match.
Luckily for Botswana, Goitseone , was in good form in goals and denied both and Jaziri from scoring inside the opening 20 minutes of the game.
Botswana well able to recover from their erratic start to the match as they also produced good goal-scoring chances of their own through Kabelo Seakanyeng, who was kept out by Ben Said.
The Carthage Eagles goalkeeper, like his opposite on the other end of the field, was very impressive in goal.
The exciting match continued to produce good goal-scoring chances, but both teams were wasteful in front of goal.
The match went into the half-break at goalless draw.
Plenty of chances continued to be created in the second-half and Ferjani Sassi looked to have got the opener in the 55th minute, only for Thatayaone Ditlhokwe to clear the ball off-the line.
Botswana squandered a golden chance to take the lead at the hour mark when Mothusi Cooper blazed over the crossbar from six-yards out, after making a lung-busting run from his own box.
Both sides did push for a winner in the latter stages of the second half, although Tunisia went the closest in the 83rd minute when Elias Achouri blazed over from the edge of the box.
Godairone Modingwane could have secured the win in stoppage time. The midfielder managed to create space in the box, before blazing over the crossbar from 12-yards out.
