Bafana Bafana midfielder Dean Furman believes the national team can be proud of their efforts despite bowing out in the quarterfinal stages of the AFCON to Nigeria.
Bafana gave an unconvincing first half performance against the Super Eagles before coming to life in the second half.
The West African giants took the lead through Samuel Chukwueze before Bongani Zungu leveled through a header in the second half.
At the death Ronwen Williams’ mistake from a corner was punished as William Troost-Ekong poked home from close range.
Furman told SuperSport: “They kind of sat off us in the first half and we didn’t move the ball quick enough to hurt them.
“Then they get their goal, and again they sat off and waited for us to make mistakes.
“In the second half, we decided to play higher up the pitch, we pressed them higher like we did the other night against Egypt and it worked for us, we came alive, got the goal and it seemed like there was only going to be one winner.”
“It looked like they (Nigeria) were tired and to get that goal at the end, that one is going to hurt for a while, but we can hold our heads up, we fought out there, we fought for every ball, it could have very easily gone our way.”
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