Bafana Bafana registered their first victory in the CAF African Championships (CHAN) at the expense of Guinea, whom they beat 2-1 on Monday afternoon at the Mandela National Stadium in Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
Neo Maema and Thabiso Kutumela scored the goals to give coach Molefi Ntseki’s side the much-deserved victory. The win comes after their dismal performance in their first match last Friday, which saw them play to a dull 1-1 draw against Algeria.
Maema opened the scoreboard as early as the 10th minute, but Guinea levelled the matter just eight minutes before the break via Moussa Moisa Camara.
Bafana having last laugh
However, at the end of the day it was Bafana who had the last laugh when Kutumela slotted home the winning goal in the 54th minute to give the South Africans their first-ever victory against Guinea in this competition.
This was Kutumela’ second goal in this competition after having rattled the net in the Bafana’s drawn match against Algeria.
The victory against Guinea, who suffered their second defeat after losing 3-0 to Uganda, placed South Africa in the second position with four points ahead of their tricky match against Niger on Saturday, August 15.
Algeria are on top of the log with the same number of points (4) but a goal difference places them in a better position ahead of Bafana.
Earlier in the match, Ntseki was concerned about Guinea, saying: “We will be going into this game fully aware that they are a very offensive team. They’ve got some very good individual players that can hurt you anytime; give them a chance. We always give respect to the teams and also zoom into those individuals in terms of how we want to play offensively and how we want to play defensively,” something which worked to his advantage in this explosive match.
However, Ntseki’s fears were allayed when his team produced a heroic effort.
Algeria take on Niger, who are at the bottom of the log, in another Group C match scheduled for 7pm this evening.
