South Africa’s Coach, Hugo Broos, believes his team can defeat the Super Eagles at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, On Friday to enhance their chances of beating Nigeria to Group C’s lone 2026 World Cup ticket.
But to do that, the Belgian admits that he needs his strikers to be at their best shooting state.
South Africa defeated Nigeria at the same arena in the build-up to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and it is based on that experience, Broos believes his squad can do it again.
The South African team is expected to arrive in Uyo on Wednesday to put the finishing touches to their preparation for the game.
Before their 3-3 friendly draw with Algeria in March, South Africa had only managed 13 goals in their previous 17 games across all competitions. Broos’ side found the opponent’s net more than once in only three games and failed to score in nine matches during that run.
Speaking on his team’s goals drought, Broos told Farpost: “I think that is a problem maybe we don’t have these guys to score goals. We are now looking at two or three years ago and it’s not easy.
“You have it or you don’t have it. I can’t put it into someone to score goals, it’s a talent that you have. So, I think now with Rayners with 15 goals, it is not so bad.
“We have Foster now who is used to playing in a high-level competition. He scores every time he gets the chance. So, he can score.
“So, let’s hope those two guys can help us now with the two games because two years ago, we were not going to Qatar because of goal differences.”
He acknowledged that his team’s goals difference compared to their rivals is not encouraging, saying, “so, it’s up to us to increase that and hope that Lyle and Iqraam will help us.”
Broos is banking on new Eagles’ coach, Finidi George’s penchant for attacking football to shock Nigeria in Uyo.
He said: “We will try to shock them again. It’s a little bit different than the team of AFCON.
“With Finidi George they have a coach who thinks more offensively. Peseirowas a little bit more defensive and I saw that certainly in the game against us, he was always telling the team to go back.
“Also, in the final they didn’t play offensively, they just tried to be good defensively and then hoped on a counterattack or a situation in front of the goal where they could score.
“I saw two games against Mali and Ghana, it’s different. They take a little bit more initiative. It’s not the team anymore who went back and waited.
“They also try to make pressure early in the game and close to the goal of the opponent, so we have to look for something now that we can shock them again like we did for the game in Cote d’Ivoire.”
