SOUTH Africa’s men’s national football team coach Hugo Broos is expecting a tough battle against Zimbabwe in their Group C 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier in Bloemfontein tomorrow.
However, while he anticipates spirited competition from the Warriors, Broos is confident of a win.
Bafana Bafana played out a draw against Nigeria on Friday while the Warriors remained winless in the group after a 2-0 defeat to Lesotho. Both are desperate for a win.
A win for the Warriors would take their points tally to five from four matches, potentially taking them to the top of the table depending on other results.
But a defeat would dampen any lingering hopes of qualification to the world showpiece.
Broos has said anything short of a win would be disappointing for his team considering that they will be playing at home.
“We are playing on Tuesday against Zimbabwe; we need the three points. I will not be happy if we don’t win against Zimbabwe,” he said.
“But it is easy to say it here behind the microphones, but I know already on Tuesday it will be a tough game [once] again.”
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“Our group is not of top countries, but it is very tricky, look at the results after three games and it is unbelievable. This is something that was the biggest change at Afcon where smaller [football] countries progressed,” he said.
“You see with the results of teams, who are in the second and third round, it was teams that you normally don’t expect at Afcon. And this is the problem in our group because any team can win against anyone.”
The Warriors yesterday travelled to Bloemfontein from Johannesburg ahead of the match.
Despite their poor show against Lesotho, the Warriors have promised to give Bafana Bafana a good run for their money.
“The game that we lost is history, the Bafana Bafana game is a different game altogether. We have time to sit down and organise and watch one or two games that Bafana Bafana have played and see how we can react to the demands of playing them. I am sure we can improve against Bafana Bafana,” interim coach Jairos Tapera said.
“We need to work on our defence and we need to work on the set pieces. Against Lesotho we had so many free kicks and so many corner kicks, but we just couldn't put the ball into the back of the net.
"We need to work on the movement of strikers and wingers so that we have more crosses into the box. We had so many chances in this match, but we couldn't convert. It's worrisome that we concede, but we don't score. We have to sit down and analyse.
“We have to be man enough to admit that we have failed ourselves in this match, but we have to see how we can move on and prepare better for the next assignment. This is football, the way we lost today is the way we can win against any other team tomorrow.”
Group C is still wide open where Lesotho sit at the apex with five points while Rwanda, South Africa and Benin have four.
Nigeria are winless after playing three draws in their first three matches.
