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PHOKENG — Despite their elimination from the Cosafa Cup on Sunday, Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba has heaped praise on his team, citing they dominated their encounter against Botswana.
Following a goalless stalemate, Bafana lost 7-6 on penalties to the Zebras in the quarter-final clash of the Southern Hemisphere showpiece event at the Moruleng Stadium.
Mashaba (64) believes Bafana were unlucky not to have found the back of the net in regulation time as the game was a one-way traffic in favour of his charges.
The Soweto-born tactician also cited that the Zebras were defending too deep with the main objective of going to a penalty shootout where they capitalised to book a place in the semi-finals.
“I think the boys did very well to be honest,” said Mashaba.
“I mean if you look at the entire 90 minutes, the opposition team only invaded our goal mouth four times.
“We had an avalanche of chances to score goals, but unfortunately we just couldn’t hit the back of the net.
“But our boys tried their best to win the game and anyway I would like to say congratulations to Botswana.
“You could see the way they were playing their football, they knew that once we get to the penalty shootouts it will be everyone’s game to win and everything worked for them.”
— Sport24
