Maseko out of Afcon, won’t be replaced: Bafana coach Broos ahead of Nigeria semi

Thapelo Maseko will play no more part in the Africa Cup of Nations, but a late replacement will not be called up for the winger, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos said ahead of Wednesday’s huge semifinal clash against Nigeria.

South Africa, ranked 66th in the world and 12th in Africa and with a mostly dismal Nations Cup record in the past two decades, are the shock packages of the tournament in Ivory Coast but will be hard-pressed to overcome nemeses Nigeria at Stade de la Paix in Bouaké (7pm SA time).

Mamelodi Sundowns’ young winger Maseko, who has been used as a super-sub by Broos, pulled up with a hamstring injury as South Africa saw off a determined Cape Verde on penalties thanks to captain Ronwen Williams’s four spectacular saves in the penalty shoot-out.

“He has a grade 3 muscle injury, so the tournament is over for him,” Broos said in his pre-semifinal press conference at the match venue on Tuesday.

“But he will stay with us — he won’t go to South Africa. And we won’t replace him.

“There are problems with a visa and also a flight, and if we replace him, that player would arrive maybe on Thursday or at worst on Friday, so we don’t want to do that.

“And we also have opportunities to solve that problem from within the squad.”

Nigeria dominated South Africa with some relish over three decades. The Super Eagles have won seven, drawn five and lost two of 14 clashes.

They also have a proud Nations Cup record, which they have won three times. In the past 11 years Nigeria won the 2013 edition in South Africa (adding to their 1980 and 1994 titles) and had third-place finishes in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2019.

Bafana, the 1996 champions and 1998 runners-up, reached their first quarterfinal since 2002 in 2013, another in 2019 in Egypt and have battled to qualify for the tournament far too often between those.

So there is an obvious gap in pedigree. Broos, though, knows from a last 16 shock of 2022 World Cup semi-finalists Morocco (2-0) and win against Cape Verde, where South Africa spent much of the quarterfinal’s goalless 120 minutes on the back foot, that results are all about what happens on the day.

He knows Bafana’s hunger to reach a first final in 26 years — since 1998 — in their first semifinal in 24 years, will be a huge motivating factor. Another potential leveller is that South Africa have done much to shake their psychological inferiority against Nigeria with a decent recent record of a win each and four draws in the last 11 years.    

“We are very happy and motivated that tomorrow we play the semifinals of Afcon,” the coach said.

“For many people it was unexpected, but we did it and that means South Africa became a good team.

“It’s also more than 20 years ago that South Africa played a semifinal and even more for a final, so that means we have got a lot of motivation.

“We are playing against a very good team that is No. 6 in the African rankings and that has a lot of players based abroad. It’s a similar situation as against Morocco, playing against players who play in big teams in Europe.

“So for many people Nigeria would be the favourites, but as you know in football it’s not always the favourite who wins.”

Nigeria were rocked by World Cup qualifying draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in November that put Portuguese coach José Peseiro under pressure going into the Nations Cup. Their start with a 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea could have been disastrous, but they recovered to a four-match winning streak against Ivory Coast (1-0), Guinea-Bissau (1-0), Cameroon (2-0) and Angola (1-0), conceding no more goals.

Broos, though, said Bafana have already met fearsome opposition in the Nations Cup, so have no reason for trepidation.

“We don’t fear them, but we know that there are good players [in their team].

“So we will try to do something that they won’t be so dangerous. And [we also know] that their defence is also very good.

“But again, those were things that were also said about Morocco and we won.”

Nigeria’s association has said Africa Footballer of the Year and Napoli striker Victor Osimhen is doubtful for the semifinal, but that could well be down to mind games. Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman has scored three goals in two knockout games.

PAOK Thessaloniki centreback William Troost-Ekong, Fulham of defender Calvin Bassey and midfielder Alex Iwobi, Nottingham Forest wingback Ola Aina and Nantes forward Moses Simon are among Nigeria’s other big-name European-based stars.

Ivory Coast meet Democratic Republic of the Congo in Wednesday’s later semifinal in Abidjan (10pm SA time).