Mosimane wary of Eritrea’s threats ahead of AFCON qualifier
Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane says they will not take Eritrea lightly in their second Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Cairo on Monday evening.
South Africa kicked off their campaign by beating Guinea 2-1 this past weekend, while Eritrea snatched a point away from home after a 1-all draw with Kenya in the other Group D match.
“I am happy with the result we got (in the first qualifier against Guinea), we got the result, and even the attitude was good,” said Mosimane.
“We need to show the same attitude against Eritrea because you can’t give respect to Guinea and not accord the same to an Eritrea side that just claimed a point away from home in Kenya.
Mosimane has identified Egyptian-based Eritrean striker Ali Suleiman as the player to watch, saying he is fast, deadly on set pieces and shoots from any angle.
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Captain Ronwen Williams echoed Mosimane’s sentiments.
“The spirit and the energy amongst ourselves is always good, and we have maintained that. The guys have been open to all the changes that the coach has implemented, and one way to see that is through the tactical agreements we had in the previous game, to see some of the things we worked on in training ahead of the game.”
In other results on Tuesday, former champions Ghana and Nigeria, as well as World Cup surprise packages Cape Verde, were beaten in a shock-riddled Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.
Ghana led by two goals before conceding twice in each half in Accra, losing 4-2 to Gambia, two of whose goals came from Ebrima Colley, in Group C.
Nigeria were behind after 15 minutes against Guinea-Bissau in Group L and finished as humiliating 3-0 losers to a nation 106 places lower in the world rankings.
After being outplayed in Mali last week in Group K, Cape Verde surrendered a lead at home to Rwanda and lost 2-1 against opponents whose sole AFCON finals appearance came 22 years ago.
