Hugo Broos proud of his troops despite Nigeria loss
By Neo Poho
Although Bafana Bafana lost to 4-2 to Nigeria in the 2023 AFCON semi-finals on Wednesday night, head coach Hugo Broos has revealed that he is proud of his players as they now prepare for the third-place playoff encounter against DR Congo on Saturday evening.
Bafana Bafana played out to a 1-1 draw after extra-time against the Super Eagles but found it hard to emulate their heroics from the penalty shootout against Cape Verde last weekend.
Broos, though says he is proud of his team, praising their performance against Nigeria as well as throughout the tournament.
"When you see the performance of my team in the 120 minutes and then you also look at the penalties it's hard to accept the result because we played a very good game today, I think we were the best team in the first half, we had the best chances and Nigeria didn’t have one chance, nothing at all, in the second half they had a few chances and scored.
But then we changed something tactically and we could come back but two minutes before the end of the 90 minutes we had three chances so if we had scored there, it was going to be us in the final and not Nigeria," Broos said.
The loss against Nigeria was Bafana Bafana's second loss in the tournament after going down 2-0 against Mali in the opening match during the group stages, and Broos believes his team worthy of being praised for how far they have went in the tournament.
"I am very proud of my players, what they have achieved throughout the tournament is impressive and I think everyone knows South Africa as a good playing team and that is the most important thing," Broos added.
Broos' charges will be hoping to conclude their 2023 AFCON journey with a third place finish, kick-off against DR Congo on Saturday is at 22:00 pm at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium.
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