South Africa head coach Hugo Broos has charged his team to remain focused on themselves ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier showdown against the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein on Tuesday evening, Bold Sports reports.
The Bafana Bafana currently sit top of the qualifying group with 16 points, and know that victory against Nigeria all but seals their qualification for the 2026 World Cup. However, they face a determined Super Eagles side who must win to keep their World Cup hopes alive.
“You just have to look at yourself, and I think this is something we have to do here too. We do not have to count on Rwanda, Benin or anyone else (doing us favours) in the group,” Broos said in his pre-match press conference. We know what we have to do, and we will try to do that, and if we can achieve it, we will qualify for the World Cup,” he added.
The Belgian tactician reiterated that they will be focusing on their task, maintaining that their destiny remains in their own hands: “I do not look at games and say, ‘oh this team is playing after us and we played before them’. You just have to focus on your own game and that is what we will do. What happened before or afterwards, that is not important if we do what we have to do.”
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South Africa captain Ronwen Williams shared the same views as Broos, stating the team are eager to get the job done by themselves rather than relying on the outcome of matches elsewhere.
“The most important thing is to get the job done. We do not want any favours from anyone, we want to do things our way. We learnt a hard lesson a few years ago when our destiny was in other team’s hands and obviously things didn’t go our way. So, we learnt and grew as a team, and now we want to do things our way and get the job done,” he said.
South Africa have won five of their seven World Cup qualification games, with their last match ending in a 3-0 victory over Lesotho, maintaining their five-point lead in group C. Meanwhile, Nigeria secured a crucial 1-0 win over Rwanda at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium to keep themselves in the race for the 2026 World Cup.
With the stakes much higher, the Super Eagles must beat South Africa or risk missing out on consecutive World Cups. Kickoff is set for 5pm Nigerian time.
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