South Africa’s national team manager Gordon Igesund has said that he is confident that his team will be able to get past Nigeria when the two sides meet each other in the African nations championship.
This tournament, which is held only for the local players, is a prestigious tournament in Africa. South Africa will head into this match leading the table with four points. However, their lead is mainly due to the better goal difference and they would want to take a win from this match in order to retain this spot in the table.
Mozambique are bottom of the table after having not taken any points so far. Nigeria’s national team won the African cup of nations recently, but it is thought that South Africa are stronger in this tournament due to the better quality of local players. Igesund says that he will not play for a draw in this match given the strength of the opponents. He has always taken to matches with a winning attitude and this will not change for this encounter.
Igesund also believes that previous history between the two teams does not account to anything for this encounter, which will be won or lost on the pitch.
Nigeria recently beat South Africa 2-0, but Igesund recalled that South Africa largely fielded a reserve team consisting of the locally based players.
“Playing for a draw is a dangerous thing for any team to do. You have to go out and play to win. My philosophy has always been to play to win. But when you start thinking about trying to play for a draw then you are doing the wrong thing and you end up making incorrect decisions. I cannot compromise my principles which are to win every match – if the other team scores three then you score four,” says Igesund.