Hugo Broos on ‘what’s tricky’ about Bafana’s WC qualifiers group
Hugo Broos has pointed out what he feels “is tricky” about Bafana Bafana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers group.
SA’s quest to qualify for the global showpiece got off to a winning start after they beat Benin 2-1 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.
Before the match, the Bafana gaffer, Broos had said it wouldn’t matter how they’d win, as long as they kept three points at home.
He admitted that their group isn’t frightening, however, is “tricky” as it consists of the so-called small teams. Based on his previous experiences, he feels lowly nations in Africa are capable of humbling the favourites.
Broos’ men are in Group C with Lesotho, Benin, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria. SA’s neighbouring countries; Lesotho and Zimbabwe forced the mighty Super Eagles to a stumbling start in the past week.
The 2013 AFCON champions were held by Lesotho to a 1-1 draw on Thursday before they dropped points again on Sunday after a 1-1 draw with the Warriors.
HUGO BROOS SAYS COLLECTING MORE POINTS AT HOME WILL BE CRUCIAL
“When the draw was done, I said this was not the worst group but it was a tricky group,” he said on Friday at Benin’s pre-match press conference.
“You see the results of the past days [Nigeria 1-1 Lesotho, Rwanda 0-0 Zimbabwe] show that I was right when I said that. All the matches were draws.
“The draw of Nigeria yesterday [Thursday] was a surprise, therefore again, winning home games is very important. When you don’t win at home, you have to catch those points away.
“And we know that it’s very difficult in Africa. People are always talking about rankings, ‘this team is 85th and this is 110, 135’. You know every game against those teams is difficult.
“You look at their results, they don’t have much defeats. When they lose the game, it’s 1-0, 2-1 but not 5-0 like I saw Egypt and Djibouti. You never see that with these teams.
“So, that means there are tough games [ahead of us] but I’m confident because I see what this team has done in the past.”
Bafana jetted off to Huye as they are set to face Rwanda in their second match of the group before the FIFA recess ends.
The match is on Tuesday, 21 November at 3:00 pm at Huye Stadium.
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