South Africa head coach, Hugo Broos, has acknowledged that his team’s loss to Nigeria in Wednesday’s semi-final encounter in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast was a hard pill to swallow.
Gatekeepers News reports that Broos said he feels his side played better against Nigeria despite their loss of 4-2 in the penalty shootout.
Although the Bafana Bafana came back from a goal down to take the game to penalties, they ended up losing.
In reaction to their defeat, Broos explained that his side played much better and deserved to win the game.
The South African coach said, “Football can be hard sometimes when you see the performance of my team today, and then there are 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 come back.”
The Belgian tactician added, “We created more chances which means if we had scored, we would have been in the final and not Nigeria.
He applauded his team for what has been a great tournament for them.
Broos said, “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.”
For the third-place playoff on Saturday, South Africa will face D.R Congo, who lost the second semi-final to hosts Ivory Coast.
