South Africa’s men’s national football team coach, Hugo Broos, aims to secure three points in the Group C 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein, Free State, on Tuesday, June 11.
On Friday, Bafana played to a 1-1 draw against the Super Eagles of Nigeria in Uyo, while Zimbabwe suffered a 0-2 loss to Lesotho in Soweto.
Broos anticipates a challenging match against Zimbabwe, recognising that the Warriors also seek maximum points to remain in the race for a World Cup finals berth. He said:
We are playing on Tuesday against Zimbabwe; we need the three points. I will not be happy if we don’t win against Zimbabwe.
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.
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.
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.
Despite the unexpected loss to minnows Lesotho at Orlando Stadium, interim Warriors coach Jairos Tapera remains optimistic ahead of the game against Bafana Bafana. He said:
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.
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.
The Warriors have drawn twice and lost once in their three games so far; fortunately, Group C remains wide open.
Lesotho are top of the table with five points while Rwanda, South Africa and Benin have four points each.
Nigeria are winless after playing three draws in their first three matches whereas the Warriors anchor the table with two points.
Overall winners of each of the nine groups will automatically qualify for the World Cup finals from Africa.
The remaining ticket will be competed for by four second-best sides.
More: Pindula News