What a sweet night it was. Bafana Bafana advanced to the Afcon 2023 semi-finals on Saturday night. The reward includes R47 million.
AFCON 2023: CAPE VERDE 0-2 BAFANA BAFANA
The game ended goalless after 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time, where Williams delivered a staggering save to deny Gilson Tavares a winner in the 88th minute.
Bafana went on to win the penalty kicks 2-1, a very unusual score in the shootouts right? Well, no goalkeeper in a major tournament has ever saved four out of five penalty before.
Coach Hugo Broos admitted that the tension of the match caused him to age a few more years, but Man of the Match Williams saved the night.
“Let’s say six hours ago I was 71, now I’m 75,” Broos said as quoted by iDiskiTimes.
“It was a stressful game, certainly the penalties. You know what happens when you have to take penalties, it’s a very special situation for the players,” the Bafana mentor added.
“Sometimes you do a little game after training, taking penalties and nearly no player misses a penalty but you see today what happened, not only with us but also the players from Cape Verde. That means, we can be happy, but players want to get a penalty. We were, not lucky because we had a very good keeper today. If you can save four penalties, this is not luck anymore. You can save one, but four, this is not luck.
“He did not only that, he saved us two minutes before the end with a player that was alone infront of him. Yes, he was of the match. I think we could choose nobody else, because he is really Man of the Match,” the Bafana tactician concluded.
THE FINANCIAL REWARDS
According to the Confederation of African Football’s (caf) new Afcon prize money, Saturday’s Bafana win over Cape Verde was worth R47 million.
How? Winning the quarterfinals to qualify for the semifinals guarantees $ 2,500,000 (R47 million).
Meanwhile, the Gqeberha-born Mamelodi Sundowns keeper will lead Bafana in the semifinals against Nigeria on Wednesday at 19:00.
You can find more articles from Siseko Gwegwe here.