Augsburg and Benin striker Steve Mounie says he was impressed with the quality of the Bafana Bafana squad which he stated was dominated by Mamelodi Sundowns players.
Mounie captained the Cheetahs in their 2-1 defeat against South Africa in their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying opener at Moses Mabhida Stadium back in November 2023.
Benin have since been unbeaten in the group, drawing with Lesotho and beating Nigeria and Rwanda in the games that’s followed, now level on seven points with Bafana and the East African nation.
“I’ve heard that when we came to South Africa to play you guys, the fans weren’t behind the team, you could feel it at the stadium because the stadium was empty, it wasn’t too full but I didn’t want us to give you guys too much energy to come back to the stadium to support your team again,”
“Unfortunately we lost the game but South Africa has good players, all of them play for Mamelodi Sundowns, or most of them do… so they know each other, they know how to play, those quick small passes and things.
“They have players who can play in small spaces, and yeah that’s what we were surprised about in the first half of that game but second half, we took the lead, we woke up a little but and we stopped and looked at them playing their passes, and played ourselves as well, which is what we need to do in the next game against South Africa.”
The former Montpellier and Huddersfield striker is their nation’s third-highest-ever scorer with 17 senior international goals in 53 caps.
