Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has promised that his charges will fight like lions when they meet Zimbabwe in a highly anticipated 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifier at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday.
The game is scheduled to get underway at 6pm.
This is the penultimate match of South Africa’s World Cup qualifying campaign, and the Belgian grey-head said it will be all hands on deck in Durban.
He said the team remains committed to the task at hand, and they are the same group of players who have worked tirelessly to keep South Africa in the race for qualification for two years.
“Nothing has changed. I feel that the group, the boys, the players, they know that they are the same players from two months ago. They are the same team with the same quality and with a fantastic mentality,” Broos said.
“Tomorrow [on Friday] at six o’clock, the game starts, and we will fight for it like lions because we want to win that game tomorrow; you can be sure of it.”
Team to sweat blood
Bafana captain Ronwen Williams said the team would work very hard and ensure that they get the required number of points from these last two matches.
“We know what is at stake. This is the business end of the qualifiers, but nothing has changed, and we need to be the same team we have been for the last two or three years,” Williams said.
“We have been growing, and we have been so good, but we need to finish it on a positive note. We have set ourselves high standards. When we started the World Cup campaign, we said we wanted to qualify, and it is close now.”
Bafana dropped to the second spot on Group C and tied on 14 points with Benin after they were docked three points by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player against Lesotho in March.
They will wrap it up against Rwanda four days later—a game that will confirm whether Bafana book their ticket to Canada, Mexico, and the USA next year for the global showpiece.
