Broos Confident That Bafana Will Qualify For AFCON

Hugo Broos, the head coach of Bafana Bafana, expressed his satisfaction with the team’s performance during the most recent international camp and expressed confidence that they would make the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

In preparation for the March 2023 AFCON qualifiers against Liberia, Bafana played friendly matches last week at Mbombela Stadium against Mozambique and Angola, winning 2-1 and drawing 1-1 respectively.

Due to Zimbabwe’s disqualification from last year’s competition, only three teams—Morocco, Ivory Coast, and two other teams—could advance from the qualification group to the continental championship, which will be hosted by Ivory Coast in January 2024 with two victories over the West Africans.

“I’m not disappointed, even though I would have liked to win, that’s for sure,” Broos said about the 1-1 draw on Sunday.

“But what we expected, the same performance on Thursday was not possible today, we didn’t play so well either.

“I felt that there was a lack of determination, players were not fresh enough today. Maybe all those games in the last 14 days played a role. The many games of the last two weeks played a role maybe.

“On Thursday after the game players complained about fatigue. I think they can accept that, because if see what they have done with the semi-final and final, Carling Cup and MTN8 – you can expect that.

“I even thought that putting some fresh players in the team would be better but no, in our game also, the way we were playing, we gave too much space and time to Angola.

“We gave them time to receive the ball, so there were many things not as good as Thursday, but we didn’t lose, that’s one good thing. Secondly, I think the result is correct.”

The 2017 AFCON champion coach was happy with the preparations overall but felt that the decline in performance in the second game was to be expected.

“I can understand the problem of fatigue because if you see the program of some players it can happen that you are less fresh than normal, but I’m satisfied with the camp and two games.

“They will be similar [opponents] to Liberia, so it was a good test and I’m sure what we showed in these games and what we showed in September, I’m sure we will qualify for AFCON, we can play good football, modern football but there was a lack of freshness [against Angola]

Also read: Hugo Broos On why Bafana Plays Less Competitive Nations