Hugo Broos on Euro opportunities for Bafana players

South Africans have fallen back in love with Bafana Bafana, thanks to a high-spirited run at Afcon 2023. Have the players opened doors for European moves? Coach Hugo Broos believes so.

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BAFANA BAFANA LOSE AFCON 2023 SEMI-FINALS AGAINST NIGERIA

As previously reported on Wednesday, Nigeria’s William Troost-Ekong scored a 67th penalty, before Teboho Mokoena equalised from the 12-yeard spot.

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The game ended 1-1 before Bafana lost 4-2 penalty shootouts.

“I’m proud of my players, it’s a defeat — we beat Cape Verde playing bad, we lost to Nigeria playing good. That’s football,” Bafana coach Broos said via TimesLIVE.

“Football can be hard sometimes, when you see the performance of my team today, and then there is penalties, and then you lose the penalties and you are not in the finals, it’s hard to accept that because we play very good game today,” Broos said via Caf.

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“I think we were the best team in the first half, we got the best chances, Nigeria didn’t have any chance. Second half they have few chances which resulted in a goal and we changed something tactically, and we could comeback,” the Belgian added.  

“We created more chances which means if we had scored, we would have been in the final and not Nigeria. 

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“It’s a big disappointment for everyone, we believe we played a very good game, not just today but throughout the tournament.  I’m proud of my players, the disappointment is this but the proudness is that,” he concluded. 

HUGO BROOS DISCUSSES EUROPEAN OPPORTUNITIES

As semi-finalists at a major tournament with over 90% locally-based footballers, Bafana players are expected to naturally attract international attention.

“We are a good team today, so that means we don’t need to have fear any more when we are playing big African countries. We are good, and we have to believe in that,” the Bafana tactician said, as quoted by the Citizen.

“It is something I have always said to the players, ‘believe in yourselves, you have the qualities’. We had to change some things and they did that and that is why I am so proud of these guys.

“I really think for some players the door is now open to Europe. They have shown they can play, it is certainly a good thing for South African football if the interest is there again,” the Bafana boss concluded.