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Cape Town - Menzi Masuku and Gift Motupa have both expressed their delight following Amaglug-glug's qualification for 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
The South African under-23 National team secured their ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games following their 3-1 win over Senegal on penalties over this past weekend.
For Masuku, this victory was testament to the hard work that the team had put in since the opening game of the tournament.
“This is a remarkable achievement however you look at it,” said the Orlando Pirates attacking midfielder on the club's website.
“To bounce back from a demoralising semifinal defeat to Algeria and win... not only against anybody but the hosts Senegal. A team that beat us in the opening round of the competition makes this victory even sweeter.
“Many people thought we wouldn’t be able to defeat Senegal especially if you consider what happened in the opening round of the tournament but for us that thought never crossed our minds.
“We never stopped believing, we were focussed on one thing and one thing only, to qualify for Rio (de Janeiro).
“Our desire to make history by becoming only the second South African football team to qualify for an Olympics was far greater than the fear of facing the hosts in an all-or-nothing encounter.”
These sentiments were shared by team-mate and fellow goal scorer in the penalty shootout Gift Motupa.
“I said it before the start of the game and I’ll say it again,” Motupa said.
“We never lost hope; the pressure was always going to be on Senegal. We gave it our all and fortunately for us our efforts paid off.”
Victory over Senegal at the weekend sees South Africa book its place in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games for the first time since the famous Amaglug-glug squad of 2000.
