Hugo Broos, the coach of Bafana Bafana, says his team will not be taking the match against South Sudan lightly because they want to finish first in their group for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Tuesday afternoon’s second Group K encounter between South Africa and the 169th-ranked South Sudanese team will take place at the Juba National Stadium.
The game begins at 3.30pm (SA time).
Uganda held Bafana to a 2-2 draw at Orlando Stadium on Friday night, preventing them from making the kind of start they had hoped for heading into the Afcon qualifiers.
Bafana will be going up against a wounded South Sudanese side that lost 1-0 to Congo Brazzaville in their opening match last week.
Broos told the media during a press conference in Juba on Monday that his team will use every effort to win the match and that they will not be taking their opponents lightly.
It will not be easy
“You never know that you are going to win the game if it’s against South Sudan, Algeria or whoever. You just try to win, and this is what we will try to do tomorrow,” Broos said.
“It’s a different game on a different pitch against a different opponent. We know it’s an aggressive team, and I don’t mean it negatively; it’s very dedicated, so it will not be easy.
“The Uganda game was difficult, but normally we should [have won] that game because there were so many chances Uganda didn’t have, and they scored the second goal from a mistake by our goalkeeper [Veli Mothwa], but we had three, four, five other chances to score.”
Thalente Mbatha, making his debut, broke Ugandan hearts with the equalising goal in stoppage time, giving Bafana a vital point.
Uganda, on the other hand, is now leading the group with four points after defeating Congo 2-0 on Monday.
South Africa will look to go above them with a better goal difference by winning with three goals or more.
