Bafana Bafana will continue their journey to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations with a tricky back-to-back Group K fixture against Congo.
The first meeting is scheduled to be played at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Friday, October 11, with the second planned for Tuesday in Congo.
Despite collecting four points from their last two games in the pool, South Africa have conceded four goals. Thapelo Morena has conceded that this is the main problem with his team, and they are working on finding a solution.
‘Bafana Bafana have been struggling with conceding goals'
“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,” the 31-year-old Mamelodi Sundowns player told Safa Media team.
“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.”
South Africa need to convert their chances
In the matches against Uganda Cranes and South Sudan, Bafana needed late goals from Orlando Pirates midfielder Thalente Mbatha to get the four points.
Morena argues it shouldn't be the case, “What we need to also do like I said, we convert our chances and defend well. That’s the ultimate goal for us.
“Training has been very well, very good because the 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. We speak as players, and everyone wants to improve in that and to give South African people hope.”
Congo have three points after a win – against South Sudan, and a 2-0 loss to Uganda.
