South Africa beat hosts South Sudan 3-2 on Tuesday in the 2025 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
South Sudan took the lead in the 14th minute in the first half before South Africa equalized in the 16th minute.
The game opened up in the second half with the score even before South Africa bagged a last-gasp winner in the 95th minute at the Juba National Stadium.
Hugo Broos, coach of the South African national team, said during a post-match press conference that his team could have put the game to bed early in the first half.
“I am very happy that we still could win the game, honestly I didn’t believe in it anymore, I know that this South Sudanese team plays with a lot of heart and dedication, they have a lot of tall players and our defense was not aggressive enough,” Broos said in Juba.
He said that his players put themselves in trouble after conceding two goals due to defensive errors.
“The big trouble we have now for this moment is that there are players who did not play competitive games, 80 percent of the players played only preseason-friendly games, and we saw that in the game, we were not sharp enough, this is not South Africa that we knew in other games,” Broos disclosed.
Nicholas Dupuis, the coach of the South Sudan national team praised his young team for stepping up to their opponents, adding that the game could have ended in a draw if the defense had not switched off in the dying minutes of the game.
“I am very proud of my players today because they were playing against South Africa; it is a very good team. The first half tactically was not very good and we only improved in the second half,” Dupuis said.
South Sudan will on October 7 visit Uganda for their next match in Group K, while South Africa will play the Republic of Congo in the other fixture.
Uganda and South Africa top Group K with 4 points each after the first two games played.
