Hugo Broos, the coach of South Africa, stated on Tuesday that his team will take inspiration from their victory against Morocco in the AFCON 2023 last 16 when they play Nigeria in the semifinal on Wednesday.
In order to eliminate Morocco from the competition in the Ivory Coast, South Africa pulled off an unexpected 2-0 victory over the reigning champions.
They believe the boost in confidence from that victory will help them target another upset.
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“I have to say that we are very happy and motivated to play in the semi-finals tomorrow.
“I think for many people it was unexpected but we did it and that means that South Africa has become a good team,” Broos told a press conference on Tuesday.
“It’s more than 20 years ago that South Africa last played in a semi-final and even longer since we were last in a final, so we have a lot of motivation for this semi and we want to play again in the final on Sunday.
“We are playing against a very good team tomorrow, with all players who play abroad.
” It is the same situation as when we met Morocco, who also had a very good team with players based in Europe at big clubs.
“You can compare the two games and I think for many people Nigeria are the favourites to win the game but as you know in football it not always the favourite who wins.”
The 71-year-old commended his players’ determination, saying they are nearly all homegrown and had won their previous four games without conceding a goal.
“I’ve always had confidence in these players, even when in South Africa there were a lot of question marks about them.
“ I think it’s important to be able to work for a long time with the same players,” Broos added.
The former Belgian international, who led Cameroon to an unexpected victory in 2017, had before hinted that he could retire, but he later changed his mind on Tuesday.
“As long as things are going the way it is now, why should I stop? I like my job, I like football, so we will see what the future will bring,” he said.
“But I think it’s totally normal that after a career of 36 years as a coach and 18 years as a professional footballer, that little by little you start thinking about the end of your career, but it’s nothing more than that.”