‘Nigeria have always felt they are better than us, but we will surprise them’,says 1996 AFCON winner, Buthelezi

Linda Buthelezi, a member of South Africa’s 1996 African Cup of Nations winning team says the Bafana Bafana will overpower the Super and qualify for the final when both sides meet Wednesday in one of the semifinal games of the ongoing 34th AFCON.

‘Mercedes Benz’ as he is still fondly called says Bafana Bafana coach, Hugo Broos, a 2017 AFCON winer with Cameroon has assembled a very strong team capable of upsetting the boisterous Nigerians boasting big-name stars such as Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi.

‘You know what I’ve noticed about the Nigerians is that they’ve always felt they are better than us when it comes to football. It’s in their nature and they can’t help themselves.

‘I’m quite sure in their minds they just can’t imagine themselves losing to a South African team that doesn’t have a lot of big-name stars.

‘But they will meet something different in this group of Bafana players. They [SA] are hungry for success, and the belief now is quite high compared to when they started their tournament.

‘I’ve been impressed with the way they play. They didn’t play that well against Cape Verde, but they have done well in the other games, playing as a unit. That will be key.’

‘We have tall players at the back, Sphephelo Sithole in the midfield, and Evidence Makgopa upfront [are also tall], and the rest of our guys are short.

‘Our team has a good mixture of players that allows us to be able to compete in the air and also play on the ground.

‘Also, Nigerian football is not where it used to be before when they had players such [1990s star] Sunday Oliseh,’ TimesLIVE quoted the 1996 AFCON winner as saying.

The Opta supercomputer has however given Nigeria a 52.2% chance of winning this tie inside 90 minutes.

This will be the fourth encounter between Nigeria and South Africa in the competition with the Super Eagles winning the previous three by an aggregate score of 8-1.

Nigeria and South Africa last met in the semi-finals at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2000, with the Super Eagles running out 2-0 winners thanks to a brace from Tijani Babangida.