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Igesund defends strikeforce

Cape Town - Despite missing plenty of golden opportunities in their recent CHAN Group A encounter against Mali, Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund insists his charges don't have a goal scoring problem.

Bafana and Mali played to a 1-all stalemate in their second match of the 2014 CAF African Nations Championship at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday.

Bernard Parker scored the opening goal of the game from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute before the West African giants grabbed an equaliser in the 54th minute through an Ibourahima Sidibe strike which left the helpless Bafana goalkeeper, Itumeleng Khune, rooted to the spot.

Speaking exclusively to Sport24 at their team hotel in the Mother City on Thursday, the former Manning Rangers coach denied Bafana’s failure to convert their chances.

“Look here, we don’t have the goal scoring problems at all.” Igesund said.
 
“Yes we might have missed the clear cut chances on Wednesday but that doesn’t mean we have problems in front of goals.

“Before asking me a question related to the goal scoring problem you should have first checked the statistics of our previous 26 games, you will see that out of those games we managed to score 40 goals.

“I honestly don’t believe that we have a problem of scoring goals,” he added

Bafana will face Nigeria in their last group match, at the same venue, on Sunday.

They will go into that encounter knowing that a draw will be adequate to advance to the quarter-finals of the competition but Igesund dismissed talks that his team will settle for a draw.

“We are not going to play for a draw.

“I have never in my principle played hoping to get a draw, never.

“No matter the circumstances, I always play for a win.

“We played against Spain and won, so why must we fear Nigeria and settle for a draw with them?

“In each game, I always tell myself that if our opponent scores three goals that means we will score four.

“I have a lot of respect for Nigeria and their coach Steven Keshi is a very good friend of mine but we will beat Nigeria."

Bafana currently top Group A with a superior goal difference over Mali who will play Mozambique on Sunday at the Athlone stadium. 

Both games are scheduled for a 19:00 kick-off.

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