Cape Verde head coach Pedro Leitao Brito has explained why his troops are not scared of Bafana Bafana ahead of the much-anticipated AFCON quarter-finals clash.
South Africa will take on the Blue Sharks in the last quarter-final match at Charles Konan Banny Stadium on Saturday night [22:00] SA time.
Cape Verde, who finished top of a group that contained Egypt and Ghana, are yet to reach a CAF AFCON semi-final. On the other hand, the last time Bafana Bafana made it to the semi-finals was during the 2000 tournament in Ghana and Nigeria under Trott Moloto.
They were beaten 2-0 by Nigeria and went on to beat Tunisia on penalties to clinch third place.
QUARTER-FINAL OPPONENTS READY FOR BAFANA BAFANA
Speaking ahead of the match on Friday, Brito insisted that they were not intimidated by the Bafana side.
“We are not scared, we are not scared. I think we have the experience to understand that this is a match,” he told the media.
“We have already played South Africa and we even defeated them. South Africa had also defeated us more than once. So we know that the game will be quite challenging. But we are confident that we will have a great match.
“So no fear if we have the desire to play if we have the desire to show the people all the training we have had. If we have the desire to give some joy to our people it will help us,” he explained.
CAPE VERDE COACH ON TEAM’S PREPARATION AHEAD OF QUARTER-FINAL CLASH
“We are prepared and we think that we are as prepared to materialise our victory,” he said.
“We took some rest and all the players are in good shape. For us to reach the semi-finals we need to work very well as a team to demonstrate that we are solidly bound to one another.
“We are also united as a team and we need to win. We will do so if we work together as a team. Our players have a good mindset, a good morale and there is a good solidarity and union amongst the team.”
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