World champions France’s Les Blues walloped a star-struck Bafana Bafana 5-0 in a friendly match in Lille, France on Tuesday night.
Star-struck, yes, and immediately after the final whistle Bafana players rushed to take selfies and ask for memorabilia from their French tormentors, TV images showed.
Thrilled to meet their idols, among them was heroic Bafana captain Ronwen Williams, who was however bombarded with five blinding, lightning-fast shots past him, including a penalty.
Williams dashed to meet gifted French PSG striker Kylian Mbappe to ask for his shirt, perhaps, but the Les Bleus goal-poacher pointed to the dressing rooms, where they would probably meet later.
So, did the likeable goalminder Williams get to have a piece of Mbappe?
After-match comments:
What they said
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos
“We knew coming into this game what we were coming up against, there was a difference of level between the two teams, but for us it wasn’t about the result, it was about the experience we have gained today.
“We’re a young team, therefore we don’t have the experience and quality of the French team. We tried our best today, but the talent of our opposition was too much, so we are not embarrassed by this scoreline.
“I was a little angry on my colleague [French coach Didier Deschamps] that he put Mbappe today and not on Friday evening [against Ivory Coast].
“He’s a great player and there are much better defenders who suffered against him, you can’t really neutralise him. He is always quick, he is technically very good, he can score.”
France’s manager Didier Deschamps
“It was a good performance, and we could have scored more. It was important to give some players some experience, especially with the Nations League coming up in June.”
Bafana captain Ronwen Williams
“It was a wonderful experience for us as the players because we played the best players in the world. We can only get better as a team going forward.
“We have a lot of positives from today’s game and the entire camp, so we will have to look at those as well while we also address the negatives as we prepare for the qualifiers in June.”
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