Africa-Press – South-Africa. Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos insists pressure is on Nigeria for their anticipated 2026 World Cup qualifier at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday night (9pm SA time). Bafana go into the third match of the qualifiers sitting third in Group C after three matches below Rwanda and Benin and a positive result at what is expected to be hostile territory will do their campaign a lot of good.
“We are ready for this game otherwise we shouldn’t be here, we all know that Nigeria is a good team because we played against them at Afcon,” said Broos.
“If I can remember, that result they got against us at Afcon could have been in our favour and we could have been the team in the final and that means both teams are good. “Pressure is a little bit on Nigeria because when you play qualifiers for the World Cup you can’t lose points at home. Pressure is a little bit on them but on the other side we believe and we have confidence after a good performance against Algeria in Mach.
“That means we can go on the level that we went with at Afcon and get a good result on Friday.”
Nigeria are missing talismanic Napoli striker Victor Osimhen with a thigh injury, but new coach Finidi George has plenty of quality at his disposal including Fulham midfielder Alex Iwobi, Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho and Atalanta winger Ademola Lookman, who scored three goals at Afcon.
“That is the problem for the coach of Nigeria and not my problem,” is what Broos when asked about the unavailability of Osimhen. Broos has continued to show faith in locally based players and he said they have showed that they can peform at that level.
“It is true that we have a lot of locally-based players, Nigeria and other African teams are using players who are playing at a higher level. But we proved at Afcon that even with local players you can achieve a very high level.
“This is the progression that South Africa has made compared to previous years, we have made a big step with local players achieving a level that you need in those games. For me it is not a problem, we have proved it that we can do it with local players.”
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