South Africa Coach Laments, Says Defeat To Nigeria Hard To Take
South Africa head coach, Hugo Broos, feels his side played better against Nigeria in Wednesday’s semi-finals encounter which they lost 4-2 on penalties in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
The Bafana Bafana came back from a goal down to take the game to penalties but ended up losing.
Reacting to their defeat, Broos explained his side played much better and deserved to win the game.
“Football can be hard sometimes, when you see the performance of my team today, and then there is penalties, and then you lose the penalties and you are not in the finals, it’s hard to accept that because we play very good game today.
“I think we were the best team in the first half, we got the best chances, Nigeria didn’t have any chance. Second half they have few chances which resulted in a goal and we changed something tactically, and we could comeback,” he said.
He added, “We created more chances which means if we had scored, we would have been in the final and not Nigeria.
The Belgian tactician hailed his team for what has been a great tournament for them.
“It’s a big disappointment for everyone, we believe we played a very good game, not just today but throughout the tournament. I’m proud of my players, the disappointment is this but the proudness is that,” he concluded.
South Africa will now face D.R Congo, who lost the second semi-final to hosts Ivory Coast in the third place playoff on Saturday, February 10.
