High hopes for Bafana ahead of S Leone clash

Friday, October 7, 2011

Pretoria - Bafana Bafana head coach, Pitso "Jingles" Mosimane, is confident that they will get their three points from the Leone Stars in their 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier match tomorrow.

Bafana face a crucial weekend where they need to win against Sierra Leone in order to qualify for the 2012 Afcon finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in January next year.

"Sierra Leone has to come at us if they want to qualify, even though I can't forecast whether it will be an open game or how they will play.

"I know what I want to do, we will attack. Irrespective of what they will do, we will attack. Whenever we play in South Africa and in front of our home fans, you can always see how well we play and how hungry we are.

"We have the advantage of playing at home so the fans should rally behind the team and encourage them all the way. With their help, we will not disappoint the nation," said Mosimane.

The match will be played at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit at 5pm and it will be broadcast live on SABC 1.

The head coach is also aware that Sierra Leone will have ambitions of qualifying as they too lie on eight points in the group and because of that he expects a tough game.

Bafana who did not qualify for the 2010 Afcon in Angola are presently in second place in their group with eight points from their five matches, a win would take them to 11 points.

However, in order to be at the top of the group come the end of the qualifiers, they will need the result between Egypt and Niger to go their way.

A win for Niger would see them top Group G, whereas a draw or a loss and a win for Bafana Bafana will see them automatically qualifying.

Nonetheless, despite the permutations of Group G, the Bafana captain says they know what is expected of them and they cannot worry about what happens in the group's other match.

Mosimane admits Niger is in the driving seat, but that will not discourage his players from doing their job.

When Bafana players arrived in Nelspruit, they were greeted by a huge crowd of their fans and they spent an hour signing autographs for the fans who also posed for pictures.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup host nation will have one training session at the match venue this morning, Friday before they take on the Leone Stars.

Bafana coach has encouraged fans to go to the stadium to rally behind their national team and help them cross the finish line into the African cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon next year.