Despite losing 4-2 on penalties to Nigeria in the semi-finals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, South Africa’s coach Hugo Broos, praised his team’s performance and said they deserved to win the game.

The Bafana Bafana equalised late in the second half after conceding a goal to Nigeria, but failed to convert their spot-kicks in the shootout.

Broos expressed his frustration at the outcome and said his team dominated the game.

“Football can be hard sometimes, when you see the performance of my team today, and then there is penalties, and then you lose the penalties and you are not in the finals, it’s hard to accept that because we play very good game today.

“I think we were the best team in the first half, we got the best chances, Nigeria didn’t have any chance. Second half they have few chances which resulted in a goal and we changed something tactically, and we could comeback,” he said.

He added,” We created more chances which means if we had scored, we would have been in the final and not Nigeria.

The Belgian coach also commended his players for their impressive run in the tournament.

“It’s a big disappointment for everyone, we believe we played a very good game, not just today but throughout the tournament. I’m proud of my players, the disappointment is this but the proudness is that,” he concluded.

South Africa will face D.R Congo in the third-place match on Saturday, February 10.