South Africa Coach Urges His Team To Shock Super Eagles Of Nigeria

The coach of Bafana Bafana of South Africa, Hugo Broos, has urged his team to shock the Super Eagles of Nigeria in Uyo on Friday, June 7.

Hugo Broos believes that South Africa have all it takes to shock the Super Eagles like they did during the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast where they completely outplayed Nigeria in the semi-finals of the tournament. The Eagles had to scale through via a penalty shootout.

During the 2023 AFCON, the Super Eagles were coached by Jose Peseiro who Broos believed was defensively-minded than coach Finidi George who is currently in charge of the Eagles.

Hence, Broos noted that the offensive nature of the new Super Eagles setup could help them to beat the Nigerian side in front of their home fans in Uyo as their push to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup continues.

“We will try to shock them again. It’s a little bit different than the AFCON team,” Hugo Broos told reporters.

“With Finidi George they have a coach who thinks more offensively. Peseiro was a little bit more defensive and I saw that certainly in the game against us, he was always telling the team to go back.

“Also in the final they didn’t really play offensively, they just tried to be good defensively and then hoping on a counterattack or a situation in front of the goal where they could score.

“I saw two games against Mali and Ghana, it’s different. They take a little bit more initiative. It’s not the team anymore who went back and waited.

“They also try to make pressure early in the game and close to the goal of the opponent, so we have to look for something now that we can shock them again like we did for the game in Ivory Coast.”

Note that South Africa are going into the 2026 World Cup qualification game against the Super Eagles sitting in the second spot in Group C, a point above third-placed Nigeria. hence, coach Finidi George and his boys are condemned to beat the Bafana Bafana on Friday to improve their chances of qualifying from the group.

After the clash in Uyo, the Nigerian side will fly to Abidjan to take on Benin Republic on June 10, while South Africa will fly back home to take on Zimbabwe on June 11.