Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has rubbished any suggestions of his side benefiting from poor results around their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
The South African national side kicked off their penultimate qualifying match against Uganda on Friday having already qualified due to Congo’s surprising loss to South Sudan the previous day.
Both Bafana and The Cranes progressed from group K and will be in Morocco in December 2025.
Broos’ men then put on a show as they dispatched Uganda in Kampala thanks to goals by Thapelo Morena and Patrick Maswanganyi and jumped to the top of the group standings with one more game remaining.
And the second from Maswanganyi that wrapped this dish up beautifully.....#BafanaPride#AfconQualifier pic.twitter.com/8tPxlADbel
Bafana will conclude the qualifiers with a home test against South Sudan in Cape Town on Tuesday. A victory will ensure they finish as the group winners.
Speaking after the match, Broos insisted that no part of Bafana’s qualification was influenced by luck and that his team deserved to be back in the biggest competition in Africa.
“Let’s say that we win next Tuesday, I think we(will) have 14 points then,” said Broos. “There were some games where we could have won, especially at home against Uganda.
“It was very important to win here today, certainly to be first in the group. Nobody can (say) now that we are lucky like some were saying yesterday (Thursday) after the defeat of Congo, saying South Africa is lucky.
“I think we proved today that we don’t need luck. We proved that we can win games and that we deserve to qualify for AFCON.”
Bafana’s qualification journey has seen them reach excellent levels having won three of their five games and drawn the other two.
The national team’s attacking prowess has also improved immensely with their 13 goals scored the second highest throughout the qualification phase and only bettered by Morocco (19).
We are now back at the team hotel and finally watching the goals scored during this match ..... The first from Thapelo Morena!!#BafanaPride #AfconQualifier pic.twitter.com/oJEGkfiP0M
— Bafana Bafana (@BafanaBafana) November 15, 2024
The abrasive Belgian coach has now incentivized his team with another milestone as they prepare to take on South Sudan in the final game with seemingly nothing to play for.
Broos has urged his men to not settle for just mere progression but seek to conclude as the group winners.
“We try to win every game, we don’t play to lose; we want to win every game, and it’s very important for South Africa, again, that we win this group. We will qualify, but we wouldn’t be happy to be second in the group,” he said.
“So, that’s why today we tried to win this game against Uganda, and we succeeded. This is what they call a cherry on top. We could have lost the game today and next Tuesday, but that’s not what we want. We want to win every game.
“It was not easy; it was a tough opponent [Uganda]. We will fight again next Tuesday to have three points again.”