Bafana Bafana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup destiny remains in their own hands as they head into the highly anticipated qualifier against Nigeria at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Tuesday night.
Kick-off is at 18:00.
Coach Hugo Broos’ charges remain top of Group C with 16 points after seven matches, while the Nigerians are third with 10 points from the same number of games.
The Belgian mentor said they would continue to run their own race and not worry about what the other teams are doing in Group C.
“You just have to look at yourself, and I think this is something we have to do here too. We do not have to count on Rwanda, Benin or anyone else (doing us favours) in the group. We know what we have to do, and we will try to do that, and if we can achieve it, we will qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
“I do not look at games and say, ‘oh this team is playing after us and we played before them’. You just have to focus on your own game and that is what we will do. What happened before or afterwards, that is not important if we do what we have to do.”
Captain Ronwen Williams echoed the Bafana Bafana coach and said the task at hand is to continue to remain in the driver’s seat and not rely on the outcome of matches elsewhere.
“The most important thing is to get the job done. We do not want any favours from anyone, we want to do things our way. We learnt a hard lesson a few years ago when our destiny was in other team’s hands and obviously things didn’t go our way. So, we learnt and grew as a team, and now we want to do things our way and get the job done,” he said.
The South African senior men’s national team will go into this encounter on the back of a tough victory against Lesotho (3-0) at the Free State Stadium on Friday night, while the Super Eagles beat Rwanda 1-0 at home on Saturday.
Nigeria coach Éric Chelle said they are looking forward to playing against an opponent they have always had respect for.
“I know something, South Africa are a very good team, and they have got good players. I like your coach, he is a very good coach, and his technical staff (is great too). Like I said, we know that this is a very big game and just like my players, we are very happy to be playing this match,” he said.
Will Bafana Bafana qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup tonight?
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