A 4-2 loss to Nigeria by South Africa’s senior men’s national team means the 1996 African champions will settle for a third-place match against the Democratic Republic of Congo while Nigeria faces host, Cote D’Ivoire in Sunday’s final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
After Wednesday’s semi-final match, the head coach of Bafana Bafana, Hugo Broos was disappointed that his players couldn’t convert their last-gasp chances which should have prevented the game from going into extra time and penalties.
Broos who won the AFCON with Cameron stated that he is proud of his team’s performance despite the loss.
“Football can be hard. When you see the performance of my players and then lose the game and not in the final. We played a very good game today. I think we were the best team in the first half with the best chances,” Broos told journalists during a post-match press conference.
“Nigeria didn’t have one chance. Nothing. In the second half, they had few chances but then we changed something tactically to come back after conceding.
“Two minutes before the 90 minutes, we got two chances and if we could have converted those chances, we could been in the final.
That can happen in football. It is a big disappointment because we feel that we played a very good game not only today but we played a very good AFCON. I am very proud of my players. The disappointment is small but the pride is high.
What they performed not only today I think you have to be a proud coach.”
He also spoke on the nature of football which can go your side today and the other way on another day.
The team beat Cape Verde 2-1 in the quarter final with goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams saving four spot kicks.
Broos’s side couldn’t replicate the same feat on penalties against the Super Eagles on Wednesday.
“It was a defeat. We played a very bad game against Cape Verde and won on penalties. Today, we played a very good game against Nigeria and lost on penalties. That’s also football but I think we have to only think about the way we play this AFCON and I know that everyone knows South Africa now as a good playing team.” He added.
“Maybe when you talk about my age you think that I am going to stop. I never said that I was going to stop. I am very happy with my job. The guys gave me a lot of satisfaction. I am proud as a coach to be a coach of that team. The rest of the future will tell us.
“I saw the coach of Nigeria many times telling his players to go back because they were afraid and couldn’t gain the ball. We played very good. We changed some tactics against Nigeria because we had to take risks. Everything was good except for two minutes before the end of regular time, we had three big chances. We could have beaten Nigeria but couldn’t do it.
“Then we had penalties which is a lottery. We won four days ago, we lost today.” He concluded.
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