South Africa’s head coach, Hugo Broos, expressed his disappointment with his team’s performance against Cape Verde at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The match, which took place at Stade Charles Konan Banny de Yamoussoukro on Saturday night, ended in a goalless draw after extra time.
Despite the lackluster performance from his team, South Africa managed to secure their spot in the semi-finals after a tension-filled penalty shootout. Ronwen Williams, the team’s goalkeeper, delivered an outstanding performance, saving four penalties during the shootout – a historic feat that has never been achieved by a goalkeeper in a single AFCON penalty shootout before.
In a post-match interview, Broos admitted that it was the team’s worst performance of the tournament. He noted, “Not too good. I think we played the worse game of the tournament against Cape Verde. We played better against Mali, Namibia, Tunisia and also Morocco. But I think this is not the team we saw in the previous games when we played Cape Verde.”
With this victory, South Africa is now set to go head-to-head with Nigeria in the semi-finals, with hopes of avenging their 2000 defeat to the Super Eagles. Despite the 24-place gap in FIFA’s rankings, the 1996 champions are determined to put up a strong fight against the three-time winners in Bouake on Wednesday.
