Ramatlhakwana: Huge game

The Zebras were beaten 1-0 by Ghana in their opening match, with Guinea also losing to Mali by the same scoreline to set up the must-win tie.

Ghana and Mali lead the way in Group D and Ramatlhakwana knows his side need to up their performance to stay in the competition.

"It is a do-or-die game and we both find ourselves in this situation where the loser goes back home," the striker told www.cafonline.com. "This game is like a final and l consider this game a more difficult encounter than the first match against Ghana.

"I saw Guinea play against Mali and they are a very physical side and they are compact and aggressive.

"They are an unknown side to us and have some tricky players like Ismael Bangoura and veteran Pascal Feindouno and we always thought they would be a difficult side to play against.

"Ghana allowed us to play - maybe that was so because once they scored they put some measures to protect their lead. I know it will be a tough game."

John Mensah scored the only goal for Ghana after 25 minutes and Ramatlhakwana is desperate to get on the scoresheet himself against Guinea.

"We were disappointed to lose to Ghana and even back home the fans thought we could have got something from that game," he said.

"There is some pressure on us to get some positive result against Guinea. There is some nervousness amongst us as we also want to turn good performance into results in the next game but overall the spirits are high in camp and come Saturday we will be ready for another battle."

Guinea coach Michel Dussuyer will not be taking Botswana lightly tomorrow.

He www.cafonline.com: "Ghana are the favourites to win this group and are a great team, and after them the picture looks like the second spot is going to be a fight between us and Mali but l would not rule out Botswana.

"Botswana played good football to be here and were the surprise team in the qualifiers."