South Africa coach Hugo Broos has expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance in their 1-1 draw with Nigeria on Friday at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
Bafana Bafana scored in the 26th minute through Themba Zwane’s fantastic run and exquisite finish, but Nigeria found the equaliser through Fisayo Dele-Bashiru two minutes into the second half.
The Super Eagles largley dominated the second half but could not get past Ronwen Williams and the South Africa defence as Bafana Bafana maintained their unbeaten record in Uyo.
Broos feels his team showed character and hopes to build on that in their next game on Tuesday.
It was a fair result – Hugo Broos
“First of all, I think that the result is correct as we had our chances and Nigeria had theirs too, but I have to congratulate my players,”he said
“As you know, we had a terrible journey to Nigeria, but I can only be proud of the mentality today.
“It was a tough game against a good team, but in the first half, I think we played fantastic football.
“We could have scored the second, and maybe then, the game was played. It was a little bit unlucky from our side that after two minutes in the second half, we conceded a goal.
“Then you know it will be difficult, but again we fought for it.”
“All the players want only one thing, and it's going to the World Cup. You see it in their mentality.”
In the other games in the group, Benin defeated Rwanda 1-0, while Lesotho also defeated Zimbabwe 2-0 in Johannesburg making the group wide open.
Broos revealed that other teams are fast catching up with football giants in Africa like Nigeria and his team, which means there will be better competition and every game will be tough.
“It's unbelievable these days as this is something for me that was the biggest thing,” the Belgian side.
“Also in AFCON, the little countries progressed a lot, and you also saw the results in AFCON with teams who were in the second and third round, which we normally don't expect in AFCON.
“Every team can win against any other team, every team can take points from any other team, so it will be tough until the last game.”
“Sometimes for these kinds of games, I think we need VAR. It's too important, and we saw it at AFCON. It was a good thing.
Broos wants VAR for World Cup qualifiers
“We are playing the World Cup qualifiers, and I think in such competitions and for such important games, we need VAR. It's important.
“You see, Lesotho is first in the group. But imagine three or four years ago, if you said a team like Lesotho would be first and Nigeria would be fourth, everybody would laugh.” Broos added.
Bafana Bafana will now head back to South Africa to prepare for Tuesday’s game against Zimbabwe, while Nigeria head to Abidjan to face Benin and Super Eagles' former coach Gernot Rohr, who is in charge of the Squirrels.
Lesotho top the group after three rounds of games with five points, closely followed by Rwanda and Benin with four points each, with Benin having a better goal difference.
South Africa, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe make up the rest of the numbers in Group C going into Matchday 4.
