OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 8.45am.
AS the country mourns the exit of Bafana Bafana from the African Cup of Nations, Nigeria has revealed that a tactical blunder – and some sharp thinking by the hosts – led to the demise of the South Africans.
Bafana were totally outclassed 2-0 in the semi-finals against the Nigerian Super Eagles at the National Stadium in Lagos on Thursday.
Bafana’s nemesis and the ace up Nigeria’s sleeve was Tijani Babangida, who scored within the first 45 seconds of the match, and then again midway through the first half.
“We were surprised that the South Africans stuck to their three-man defensive formation,” said Nigeria’s assistant coach Shaibu Amodou after the match.
“We switched Babangida from the right wing where he usually plays to the left,” said Amodou. “In this way he could take any one of Mark Fish, Lucas Radebe and Pierre Issa on at the back, cut across the face of the goal for a clear shot.
“And it worked beautifully,” said Amodou, whose knowledge of South African football when he coached Orlando Pirates in 1998, proved invaluable to the Nigerians camp. “Moving him to the left took the South Africans by surprise. They had no answers to our midfield or our attacking style of play.”
Bafana play Tunisia for the third round playoff in Accra on Saturday.
Despite the humiliating defeat, Bafana coach Trott Moloto said that South Africa can still hold their heads high after the defeat and that he plans to bring in a number of changes for Saturday’s game. “That first goal coming so easily killed us,” he said.
“We had no chance to reorganise from that. There is no disgrace when you lose against a team like Nigeria, especially in front of that crowd.”