While Nigeria’s shock loss to Benin on Monday may be seen as a good result for South Africa in their Fifa World Cup qualifying campaign, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has cautioned the Rainbow Nation to lower the excitement for now.
Bafana host Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein in their fourth game in Group C of the African qualifiers on Tuesday evening, and a win could see South Africa join top-placed Benin on seven points.
Coming into the qualifiers, Nigeria would have been seen as the heavy favourites but now find themselves fifth out of six in a group also featuring Lesotho and Rwanda.
In fact, Lesotho are second on five points and Rwanda third on four points, while Bafana are also on four points ahead of their clash on Tuesday.
Clip from our training yesterday; which was open to the public. So much ❤️ #BafanaPride #WCQualifiers pic.twitter.com/uBVhMyRJhR
‘Our group is not a group of top countries’
Broos said it was testament to the quality of the so-called ‘minnows’ that the group has been so competitive.
“Normally when you see the draw of the group, you know that Nigeria will be your biggest opponent to be first in the group,” Broos said.
“Nigeria have played three draws and have played two home games and that’s not really good. You need to win your home games first and then see if you can take some points outside.”
Broos acknowledged that Group C contained mostly smaller teams, but that fact would not make it any easier for Bafana.
“Our group is not a group of top countries, but it is a tricky group. You saw the results now after three games, it is unbelievable. The biggest change, even in Afcon, is the little countries progressed a lot.
“Teams that were in the second and third round, you normally never expect in the Afcon and this is the difficulty in this group.
“This is the problem for all the teams. Any team can take points from any other team. It will be tough until the last match, I don’t think it will be decided early.”