Ntseki remains confident despite Ghana loss

by Staff Reporter

Friday Nov 15, 2019. 09:30

Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki says there is no need to hit the panic button after his side lost 2-0 to Ghana in their opening Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Cape Coast on Thursday.

Ntseki picked an attacking side that was ultimately outmuscled in the midfield as they battled to get possession of the ball, and when they had it, created little.

With a crunch home game against Sudan looming on Sunday, Ntseki feels you cannot read too much into the Ghana loss.

“I think let’s understand how we operate as coaches – you select the team and prepare the team to win. You can’t come to a press conference and say, ‘I’m in this game to lose’. I am still confident in my players even though we lost 2-0,” the coach told reporters.

“If you look at the game itself, it was more balanced. As I said, they had more power and strength in getting the goals.

“It’s not like we were outplayed in situations where we conceded. It happens in a game of football. When you are not balanced, the opponent takes advantage. I think I kept on saying yesterday when everyone else was trying to single out individual players from Ghana, I said they were a strong team and they’ve got a very strong history in terms of their playing capabilities.

Ntseki suggested there would be changes with the short turnaround for Sunday as he sees to put out a fresh combination.

“In the qualifiers, you always have those situations where some of the teams in your group will win and you end up losing a match but I think we prepared the team very well for the back-to-back matches.

“We are fully aware that we were playing the first match in Ghana and the second match in South Africa. I think you saw everybody who was in this camp will be available for Sunday except for Bongani Zungu who has a knee injury.

“So, we have a balanced team. We selected a balanced team and I’m looking forward to playing the best team on Sunday and to do well for ourselves and win the match.”