Bafana Bafana right-back Thapelo Morena has urged his teammates to get their defensive organisation in check ahead of Friday’s Group K 2025 AFCON Qualifiers clash against Congo Brazzaville.
The two nations meet at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha with the hosts looking to take control of top spot with a win which will elevate them to seven points while Congo will move to six points should they upset SA ahead of next week Tuesday’s return leg.
Bafana coach Hugo Broos has raised concerns about how much his team has been conceding in the qualifiers, with four goals in two matches after being held to a disappointing 2-2 draw by the Ugandan Cranes before they sealed a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 win over South Sudan.
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The Mamelodi Sundowns man agrees that defensively the team can do better and as players they have also spoken among themselves on how to address the challenge.
“I think the most important thing is that the coach has given us information about opponents, and we’ve done our debrief so we know where we need to improve,” Morena told Safa media.
“We watched the Congo team playing. The most important thing is to make sure that we try and get our playing skills and structure right, we convert our chances. That’s the most important thing and the big one also is to defend very well, because that’s the main issue that we have been struggling with. But yeah, we need to do our level best to get the maximum points.
“I think we’ve been doing very well away, but the most important thing is to also do well at home. And if we win at home, the game is going to be open when we go for the second leg. So, what we need to also do like I said, we convert our chances and defend well. That’s the ultimate goal for us.
“And training has been very well, very good because coach has emphasized more on the level of attitude and whatever we’ve done through the past. He brought back the AFCON results showing us how we played and the goals that we conceded.
“From AFCON to now we doubled the numbers of conceding, so I think it’s something that we also as players looked into it. We speak as players, and everyone wants to improve in that and to give South African people hope,” he added.
The match will kick off at 19:00.
