Broos calls for fast start as Bafana look to zap Zimbabwe

Hugo Broos has called on his Bafana Bafana side to not give Zimbabwe even a sniff that they have a chance to beat South Africa in Thursday’s Group G 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier at FNB Stadium (Kick off 9pm).

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Bafana head into a game knowing a victory will keep them on top of Group G and that it will even qualify them for the final round of World Cup qualifying, if Ghana lost to Ethiopia at Orlando Stadium earlier on Thursday.

That game is being played in South Africa because Ethiopia do not have a stadium that meets Confederation of African Football regulations.

Zimbabwe are already out of the running in the race for Qatar 2022, but are preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations finals early next year and will in any case want to upset their noisy neighbours.

“Most important is how we are going to play. We have to start the game well and not give them confidence,” said Broos.

“They will be coming to South Africa, trying to win, but not really believing … (but) if we give them confidence from the beginning of the game, it will be more difficult than it is already.

“It will not be an easy game, but on the other side if we lose points tomorrow it will mean we have not played as we had to, that we did not play at our level. If we can do that (play at our level) we will win the game. But in football you never know … you have to be ready from the first second of the game.”

Zimbabwe have changed coaches since the two sides met in September, with Norman Mapeza replacing Zdravko Logarušić, who was sacked after the Warriors opened their group G campaign with a goalless draw at home to South Africa and a loss in Ethiopia.

Mapeza will be very familiar with the South African game having played for Ajax Cape Town and coached Chippa United in the 2019/20 season.

“When we played them in Zimbabwe they had a coach … now again there is another coach, they have changed a lot!” said Broos.

“We saw their two games against Ghana (Zimbabwe lost home-and-away to the Black Stars in October). It is not such a different style (from when they played us), but it is a question again of how they will play tomorrow. This is a different team than they had before, a different team from the one that played in the first game of the qualifiers. So we will see how they play … but again most important is how we are going to play.”