Coach Hugo Broos wants Bafana to finish the year with a flourish in Cape Town

16 November 2024 - 09:30
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Bafana Bafana goal scorers Thapelo Morena and Patrick Maswanganyi during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) against Uganda at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala.
Bafana Bafana goal scorers Thapelo Morena and Patrick Maswanganyi during the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) against Uganda at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala.
Image: Hassan Wamwayi/Gallo

Hugo Broos wants Bafana Bafana to finish their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers with a flourish. 

South Africa, who had already qualified for next year's Afcon in Morocco, pulled off a massive 2-0 win over Uganda at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Kampala on Friday afternoon to go top of Group K with eleven points from five matches. 

Bafana went into the clash with the mission of getting all three points to move to the top of the group and that was achieved on foreign soil. 

Now, Broos wants his charges to end their qualification programme with victory over bottom-of-the log South Sudan when they meet in the last round at the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday. 

Bafana are favourites to beat South Sudan but they will have to guard against complacency as their visitors stunned Congo 3-2 during the week for their only win of the qualifiers. 

“Let's say we win on Tuesday, we will have 14 points and that’s a lot. There were some games we should have won, especially against Uganda at home,” said Broos after the match. 

“It was important for us to win here in Uganda and go top in the group. Nobody can say we are lucky, like they said after the defeat of Congo by South Sudan during the week. We proved that we don’t need luck and we can win our own games when it matters the most.

“We will have 14 points if we win on Tuesday and we will be deserving of qualification for Afcon.” 

Asked to reflect on the important away victory, Broos said they took time to get going in the match. 

“I am very happy that we won the game today. It was a difficult game, especially in the first half where we played too slow. We had chances in the first half but there was good defence from Uganda. 

“Our game was better in the second half where we easily found the deep man and that was a problem for Uganda and we scored in the right moments. We came here to win so that we can move to second spot in the group and we will try to win again on Tuesday against South Sudan. 

“I think our goalkeeper [Ronwen Williams] had a quite afternoon and if you score two goals you deserve to win the game. If you win 2-0 in Uganda, then you have to win on Tuesday against South Sudan in South Africa. 

“That is normal thing you can imagine, it will not be nice from our side if we lose that game on Tuesday. What I heard is that there will be a crowd in the stadium, so we will try to give something nice to our supporters by winning against South Sudan.” 

Broos is also happy that they kept a clean sheet. 

“You try to win as many games as you hope but it is important to keep a clean sheet. When you have a clean sheet at least you have one point but we try to win every game. 

“We don't play to lose, we always play to win and it is important for South Africa to win the group. This is what they call the cherry on top. We have qualified and we could have lost the two games and we will be OK but that is not what we wanted. We fought today and we will fight again on Tuesday to get the three points.” 


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