South Sudan coach Nicolas Dupuis has admitted he is afraid his side could be in for a tough time against Bafana Bafana after bringing his CHAN team without professional players to Cape Town.
Hugo Broos’ men will face South Sudan at a packed DHL Stadium on Tuesday evening, with Dupuis admitted they travelled with a very slim squad of only local-based players.
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“I want to congratulate South Africa to be qualified for the CAN,” he told journalists.
“We are here with 14-15 players only because tickets were too expensive. But I’m here with fighters. My players have a very good spirit, and we are going to do our best.
“Last week we won against Congo with the CHAN team, so we’ve brought only the CHAN team for this game. Because we are preparing for the second round of CHAN, we are going to play against Rwanda in December. So, we have to prepare for that.
“We are going to play a beautiful game against a beautiful team. We need to have a good spirit, we need to fight. I think people will be able to see a good game.”
Dupuis also admitted that it was a completely different ball game when they beat Congo Brazzaville 3-2 at home and he is a bit scared of what Bafana, who he rates among Africa’s top sides, do to his side.
“Against Congo, it was another game, we played at our own stadium,” he added.
“Three weeks ago, we played against Kenya with the same team, and we won, so we were confident against Congo at home.
“Here it’s not the same. I saw the game between South Africa and Congo here. I think it was 5-0. I’m very afraid of that.
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“I think South Africa is now one of the 5-6 best teams in Africa. Sudan is not the same. We are going to play without any professional players, only local players.
“But my players are good. We are in good shape and we have trained a lot of times. Maybe in October and November I trained 30 times with them. So the level has improved.
“But between South Africa and South Sudan is not the same, but in football anything is possible.”
