Igesund believes Bafana can reach final

Gordon Igesund. Picture: Schalk van Zuydam/AP

Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund believes his team can go all the way to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

After achieving their first objective of qualifying for the knockout stages of the tournament thanks to a two-all draw with Morocco, Igesund said he had always maintained his players had what it took to win the tournament.

But he said they would have to work hard and work on minimising mistakes.

Bafana finished as Group A leaders with five points after two draws and one win and will face Group B’s runners-up, which is likely to be either Mali or the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We have played three games already and have not lost and we are just two games away from the finals. We have the momentum and we must go all the way. I have always believed we can do it.

“We stood as lone rangers believing, why not? I am happy we came up on top because we played good teams in this tournament. Today we played a very good team which had nothing to lose and they gave everything,” said Igesund after the match last night.

He was not happy with the two goals Bafana had conceded, saying they were too soft and his team could have done better.

“I was very disappointed with the goals because we worked on those things. We knew they were going to come at us but we still allowed them to do so. In my opinion we could have done better but we will have time to rectify that before the next game.”

But Igesund did reward the players’ overall performance with a night off and a well-deserved break for a job well done.

“They gave all their hearts out because it was tough out there. We feel proud after going through the first hurdle and we feel good about that,” he said.

He cautioned that there was still a long way to go before they could reach the final.