Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos on the touchline against Morocco. Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos. Picture: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
Johannesburg – Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was a happy man after his troops bagged a famous win over Morocco in their final Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Saturday night.
South Africa beat Morocco 2-1 at an euphoric FNB Stadium to temporarily go top of Group K with seven points as they trail Morocco, who have a game in hand, by one.
Bafana, who were expected to be no match for the No.1 ranked nation of the continent, sprung an early surprise through Percy Tau who forced Munir El Kajoui into an error.
Broos’ men doubled their tally early in the second half through Zakhele Lepasa’s tap in before the Moroccans pulled one back – a goal that proved to be a mere consolation – from Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech.
It was a perfect ending to Bafana’s Afcon qualifying campaign as the 56,000-strong crowd who turned up to the match got their money’s worth.
Speaking to the media after his team’s win over the World Cup semi-finalists Morocco, Broos was all smiles, explaining how happy he was of his team’s performance against a tough opposition.
“I don’t have to tell you that I am very happy today - not only because we won the game, I think we deserved to win the game with the chances we had. But I am happier for the performance,” Broos said.
“I said before the game the result is not important, but I would like to see a good performance and progression we made in the last few months.”
Despite Bafana not losing at home under the tutelage of Broos, they were not expected to dominate the Atlas Lions who are ranked 11th in the world after their exploits in Qatar. But Bafana were all over their North African visitors.
“I think you would agree that you saw a team that made enormous progress in the last few months. We played against a very good team. We were never dominated,” Broos said.
“On the contrary, we sometimes dominated. We had three or four good chances to score. If I remember, there were only one or two chances for Morocco (to score).
“I am happy that I went on to give confidence to this group of players. I believe in them even though some people didn’t because (they thought) I made some bad choices, and I didn’t understand the South African culture.
“But you see, you don’t build the team in one day - you need time. And in that time, defeats can be very useful. So, we had defeats, and we learned a lot from them.”
Broos still wants his team to improve as that could help them put up a gallant fight in the finals in Ivory Coast next year. In their last finals in 2019, Bafana crashed out in the quarter-final.
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