Panama coach Thomas Christiansen says the FIFA World Cup stage will present a far greater challenge than what his side and Bafana Bafana experienced against each other on Friday.
Panama and South Africa played to a 1-1 draw at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban and are set to meet again in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Christiansen said he faced the kind of team he expected—well-organised, difficult to break down, and dangerous in the spaces his side tried to control.
Despite that, he stressed that both teams must continue improving as they prepare for the much tougher demands of the World Cup stage.
“Well, today I saw what I expected from this team. A physical team, a fast team in attack, good transitions, good runs,” said Christiansen in the post-match press conference.
“They found us in the spaces that we wanted to close.vBut a friendly game or a qualifying game is not the same as a game in the World Cup. So I think we both need to upgrade a little bit our level.”
Ahead of meeting Bafana again in Cape Town, Christiansen says they want to improve defensively, an area he was not happy with in the Friday’s match.
“I hope [to see us improve], especially in the defensive, that we are going to change these mistakes that we had,” he added.
“And we will probably also see some other players in action. That was the main goal as we saw we’re having two games against South Africa.
“And also because of the jet lag and the travel we had, we need to try to make the best team or the team that were in best condition thinking of not getting injured.”
