Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has revealed the reasons why his side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Mali in their Group E AFCON opener at Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium on Tuesday night.
Coach Éric Sékou and his soldiers were superb at Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium, thanks to second-half goals by Hamari Traoré and Lassine Sinayoko.
As a result, Bafana are languishing in the basement of the Group E table following their 2-0 loss to the Eagles of Mali, who are gunning to win their first-ever CAF AFCON title.
The Belgian mentor has explained that Mali players were more powerful in terms of physique, as compared to South African players.
Broos has, however, praised his troops, claiming that the performance was good, but not good enough to get fruitful results.
HUGO BROOS DIVULGES WHY BAFANA BAFANA SUFFERED DEFEAT TO MALI
“I have to congratulate my team for the performance. I think we lost the game in two facts,” said Broos in a post-match interview.
“Firstly, is missing the penalty, and secondly is the physical power. Those reasons made us lose the game today.
“But the performance of South Africa was good, and I think if we scored the penalty, the game should have been different, but it’s okay.”
‘THEY WERE STRONGER IN DUELS’
Bafana coach went on to say that Mali coach knew what to fix in the second, as they came back stronger.
“You know, we had chances, and we missed a penalty. I think the coach of Mali saw what they had to do. They were stronger in duels in the second half, and we couldn’t make our game anymore. That was because of the power of Mali,” he added.
“We lost balls on places we didn’t have to lose it. That made the second goal, and the game is finished. But again, I think the performance was good but not good enough.”
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