After enduring a tortuous journey from the Rainbow Nation, South Africa’s delegation is now in the Akwa Ibom State capital, Uyo ahead of Friday’s World Cup qualifying match against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The South Africans confirmed their arrival with a short message on their X account on Thursday where they wrote: Bafana Bafana have finally arrived at their base in Uyo, Nigeria #BafanaPride #WCQualifiers
Before finally announcing their arrival in Uyo, the South African delegation had voiced their frustration at their prolonged journey complicated by several bureaucratic bottlenecks.
“Bafana Bafana have been on the road for 18 hours and still not at base in Nigeria. The team is currently at Port Harcourt Airport where they cleared customs, awaiting transfer to the hotel, to spend the night. Uyo airport had closed by the time the team was scheduled to take off,” the initial update by Wednesday night by the South Africans read.
According to the itinerary seen by PREMIUM TIMES, the South African team will hold a pre-match press conference by 7.30 p.m. later tonight before proceeding to a training session at 8 p.m., which is the same time as kickoff for Friday’s crunch fixture.
Optimism
Now that they have arrived and are getting set up for Friday’s crucial tie, players and officials of Bafana Bafana are hopeful of returning home with a good result before they host neighbours Zimbabwe in their matchday 4 fixture.
Looking ahead to the two qualifying matches, Mamelodi Sundowns’ Themba Zwane shared his optimism though he admitted that the games; especially against Nigeria will be tough.
For him, a win against the Nigerian side would be redemption, after being edged out by them at the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) semi-final through penalties.
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“Both games are very important. We just want to win the two games even though we know they are both going to be difficult, especially the match against Nigeria. It will be more difficult because we will be playing away from home.
“We played against them (Nigeria) at AFCON and we know what they are capable of. It’s going to be an exciting game to watch and we will put up a good fight to ensure that we get the desired results,” Mr Zwane told his club’s website.
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