Abidjan: Hugo Broos Head Coach of South Africa has said his side deserved to be in the finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after losing to Nigeria on penalties.
The Bafana Bafana came back from a goal down to take the game to penalties but ended up losing.
Broos said his side played much better and deserved to win the game adding ‘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.
‘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,’ he said.
He added, ‘We created more chances which means if we had scored, we would have been in the final and not Nigeria’.
The Belgian tactician hailed his team for what has been a great tournament for them.
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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 noted.
South Africa would now face D.R Congo in the third place playoff on Saturday, February 10.
Source: Ghana News Agency