Following Bafana Bafana’s 5-0 ravaging of Congo-Brazzaville in the AFCON 2025 qualifiers, Hugo Broos’ men were sent a stern warning before their rematch.
The Red Devils had everything to play for in the second leg, knowing that if South Africa won, they would be eliminated. The game finished 1-1, extending Congo’s chances of leapfrogging Bafana Bafana.
However, the bookies still feel South Africa are firm favourites to make it through.
Congo’s message to Bafana
Head coach Isaac Ngata remained optimistic for the rematch following his side’s heavy defeat, telling SABC Sport, “Yes, yes, from what we prepared, I was sure that our players were going to play very well, but I’m surprised to see they changed their state of mind. In the second leg, hopefully, things will change,
“We’ll prepare for that physically and mentally, I think they can play good games at home. We know that South Africa is better than us in many points but we knew that South Africa is a big team but what we produced today [Friday night] is not what we were expecting to do.
“We are hoping that next week, we are going to change our mentality and physically we are going to change the players”, he added.
“So, the reason for coming late here, we can accept that, it’s not important. So, what’s important is when you go to war, you must be men, good soldiers. We prepared for the game, we had only one big training at home, we came here but the problem is that we didn’t lose the match because we were tactically bad but because of our mentality. The spirit we have in the field is not the one we expected here,”
“So, I’m going to remind them that we are going to play at home. We played here with a big team and a big public [fans]. At home, we are going to play with a big team but the public [fans] will be ours. So, I have to remind them they have to play to satisfy our fans.”
Bafana Bafana’s upcoming fixtures
- Uganda vs South Africa (Nov 11, AFCON qualifiers)
- South Africa vs South Sudan (Nov 19, AFCON qualifiers)
- South Africa vs Lesotho (Mar 17, World Cup qualifiers)
Do you think we will make AFCON 2025?
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