Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has applauded his team’s performance against Egypt, despite a 1-1 draw in the first round of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier played at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.
The Egyptians were the first to break the deadlock, when Mohamed Hassan Hashem Abdelaal scored a beautiful goal in the 66th minute to take the lead in this tight contest.
But Sekhukhune United’s Jamie Webber equalised in the 79th minute when he scored a stunner to ensure a share of the spoils.
Ntseki heaped praise on the team, even though it failed to get the outcome he wanted.
“The structure for me is everything because when you have the structure, it means everybody understands their roles and functions within the game, whether in possession or out of possession,” he said.
“The boys did very well in terms of performance, but the final result was not that pleasing knowing very well that we still have to go to Egypt in the second leg.
We saw how they conducted themselves, especially after scoring, when they were playing for time.
Personally, I’ve played too many games against Egypt in the junior teams and in the senior teams,” said Ntseki.
His Egyptian counterpart, Wael Reyad, bemoaned the absence of some players, due to problems with travel documents.
This after the match was moved from Friday to Sunday, after the Pharaohs experienced difficulties to acquire visas, which were only issued on the day of the match.
“But we have many, many players who did not come with us because they had problems with their passports and papers, something like that.
But we played with 15 or 16 players only.
I told my players after the match, as it was a very tough game because it was the first time for them to play for the national team,” said Reyad.
Bafana will travel to Egypt today for the return match, will be played on Thursday.
CHAN will be held later this year in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
