Bafana attacked and put a lot of pressure on the visitors early on. Both teams struggled to get a goal, with Congo coming close in the 35th minute but Senzo Meyiwa made a heroic save after Delvin Ndinga’s powerful shot. The first half ended goalless.
In the second half Bafana continued pressing forward with no luck. Congo used the opportunity and counter-attacked, also to no success. Congo tightened their defence in the dying moments of the game and Bafana found it hard to make any further chances. After the game Mashaba said, “I think it was a balanced game [and] we should have buried it in the first 20-25 minutes. Our strikers were stronger than their defenders but most importantly we lacked mental intelligence upfront…And of course Rantie, we don’t blame people when they embark on a solo effort, but he overdid it. At some stages he’ll run to the ball and he’ll find himself in wrong positions and he was surrounded by four people but those are the things we go to work on,”
Bafana must still win their next two games against Nigeria and Sudan to qualify.
