CHAN: South Africa’s Nteski delighted to walk away with priceless Guinea victory

South Africa coach Molefi Ntseki admitted facing a tough day in the office against Guinea but was elated to come away 2-1 winners of the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) Group C fixture in Kampala, Uganda on Monday.

Goals from Neo Maema and Thabiso Kutumela secured Bafana Bafana’s first win of the CHAN tournament. Moussa Camara had briefly drawn Guinea level in a pulsating first half at Mandela National Stadium.

“You can tell how difficult it was, and how tough it was. But at the end of the day, Guinea played the game, and we scored the goals. And what is important for us was to score the goals and win the game. We are very pleased with the result, but there is still a lot of work that we need to do going into the next match (against Niger),” Ntseki said as quoted by SAFA media.

“As for Guinea, I think they came at us after we scored the first goal, which was a beautiful goal and worked out in line with our preparations. I also think the recovery period was a bit short for us (after facing Algeria on Friday), especially when you look into the intensity of the last game we played. Guinea also played on the same day (on Friday), and they lost 3-0.”

He added: “From our side, when it comes to our physical recovery and game preparation, we will look deeper into our readiness (ahead of the next game against Niger).

“Our physical conditioning coach and our medical team will have to work on the players so that they are fresher and more focused after winning against such a difficult and tough team. They really made us run. In terms of the kilometres that were covered by our team defensively, I think it was more than 12 kilometres.”

The result moved South Africa into contention with four points, temporarily behind Algeria while Guinea remained on one point and will need both victory in their last match and favourable results elsewhere to stay alive in the tournament.