Bafana Bafana are set to go head-to-head with Nigeria on Wednesday night at the Stade de la Paix.
The two teams met in an AFCON semi-final, 24 years ago, will history be re-written?
Speaking at a media briefing at the teams’ base, Helman Mkhalele said he believes the team has potential and should carry more confidence into the game, because that is something they lacked when he played against Nigeria, 24 years ago.
“Going to that game, and landing in Lagos, I still remember people were raising their hands saying we were going to [get beaten by] get 5 and what was more interesting is that we used to see that when we travelled to any other country but looking at the expressions, you could see there was so much-in inverted commas- ‘hatred’ and I believe that maybe as a team we couldn’t handle that type of pressure as well ,” said Mkhalele.
Bafana ultimately lost 2-0 to Nigeria in that semi-final, however, there has been a lot of upsets in this edition of AFCON. Bafana themselves have gone on to beat the top-ranked African side, Morocco, in the quarter-final.
Rivalry is nothing new between the two nations [Nigeria & South Africa], it has even transcended football and entered the entertainment industry, politics and other areas, fueling Wednesday’s upcoming encounter.
