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Mashaba: Bafana deserved to win

Cape Town - Shakes Mashaba felt South Africa deserved to win the Nelson Mandela Challenge after they beat Egypt 1-0 at the Orlando Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Mpho Makola scored the only goal of the game after just seven minutes, although there were plenty of chances for both teams throughout the contest in Soweto.

Mashaba was pleased to see his side net in consecutive games, having played out to a 1-1 draw with Mauritania in their final African Nations Cup qualifier on Friday, but  had criticised Bafana Bafana's lack of goals in the build-up to the clash against the Pharaohs.

However, he was less happy with their performance in the second half, citing fatigue after two high-tempo outings.

The Bafana coach, though, claims they were worthy champions on the night as the team lifted the Nelson Mandela trophy for a third year in succession.

"In the first half we did very well, second half we played most of the time with our reverse mind," Mashaba told SABC Sport after the match.

"We never played too much forward and we allowed them to play between the lines and that nearly caused us problems.

"But bringing in our subs we were able to stabilise again and started playing very well. But we were playing against a highly technical team and we have seen they run off the ball very well and exploit spaces well.

"But I think our boys played very well and we deserved it."

Commenting on criticism from the local media in the wake of their disappointing stalemate against Les Mourabitones, Mashaba said: "There is no difference (in performance) as such, the only difference was that we were playing a different bunch of players today.

"The Mauritania team had pace, but Egypt kept on changing the gears. But both games we played very well, our boys managed to score goals in both matches. In this one we scored and we managed to consolidate.

"The biggest problem is that when we get into the box everybody wants to play alone as an individual and they believe in the solo effort. We lacked a bit of combination up front today, especially in the second half.

"We are still on our mission of building up a team and it is paying off well. All the players that came in, you could see played very well, even though fatigue was taking its toll."

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