Liberia coach Ansu Keita has boldly declared he was confident his team would bounce back against South Africa in their Afcon qualifier.
WHAT HAPPENED: Bafana wasted chances in both halves and ended up paying the price as Leone Stars came from two goals down to grab a point in a four-goal thriller staged at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.
Keita, however, insists he was sure his opponent will not take their chances and his team will eventually get something from the match.
The tactician further explained why his team struggled to gel before staging a late comeback in front of the Bafana fans.
WHAT HE SAID: “I told my players in the dressing room, [if] Bafana Bafana score 100 [goals], we [will] score 100 [goals], so when they scored, no worries,” Keita said as quoted by iDiski Times.
“[I told them] keep your calm, focus, and let’s go. You know it was difficult for us, it is a new team, a new generation, we have a lot of new players from Europe, you know it is tough in Africa, you have to adapt yourself.
“So we got to know that, we knew we would suffer, we knew that. We knew that Bafana was going to miss a lot of goals, but it’s football, one has to miss and one has to capitalise on that. So we kept our calm, we defended well and got the result.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: The result at Orlando Stadium means South Africa drop to third in Group K with one point, the same as Liberia who have a better head-to-head record.
However, Bafana will qualify for the 2023 finals to be held in Ivory Coast if they get a win – by any margin, in Monrovia on Tuesday.
WHAT NEXT: Hugo Broos has a couple of days to address the goal-scoring problems ahead of the second meeting.
Source link : https://www.goal.com/en/news/if-bafana-score-100-goals-liberia-will-score-100-keita-knew-south-africa-will-miss-a-lot-of-chances/bltd80e7fedf5a428a3
Author :
Publish date : 2023-09-20 07:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
