'If God is with us, Bafana can qualify for the FIFA World Cup on Tuesday' – Broos

JOHANNESBUBRG - South Africa remain five points clear at the top of Group C following a 3-0 win over Lesotho in the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifiers at the Free State Stadium on Friday night.

Goals from Mohau Nkota, Lyle Foster and Oswin Appollis sealed victory over the Crocodiles. Bafana Bafana are now five points clear of Benin, who beat Zimbabwe 1-0, while fellow top-spot contenders Nigeria face Rwanda on Saturday.

“After everything that has happened over the past days, it was a nervous game,” Broos said of their win over their neighbours. “It was not an easy game. I saw a very motivated Lesotho, but we did very well. We had some chances, we scored, and we dominated.

The only thing we had to do today was to stay organised and avoid stupid mistakes and we did that.

Lesotho spent 90 minutes kicking the ball forward, hoping for an error from our side, but we didn’t give them one. We won the game, and we deserved to win. That shows again that you only win games on the pitch, not off it.”

Broos admitted he was not always confident during the week that South Africa would claim all three points. This followed threats from the Lesotho FA that they would play the match under protest if South Africa fielded Tebogo Mokoena.

The Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder did play the full 90 minutes, despite a row stemming from the first meeting between the two nations in March, which centred on Mokoena’s eligibility for that clash.

“You know sometimes you have a bad feeling, but you can’t prove it. I have to be honest, I had that bad feeling over the past days. I won’t go into detail, but what happened was not normal,” Broos reflected.

“Therefore, it was so important for us to win today and that is what we did. Now we will see next week when we play Nigeria. If God is with us, we might even qualify as early as next Tuesday for the World Cup. That has always been our goal. We are in a good position. Everything is in our own hands now, it is up to us to finish it.”

The victory came despite Hugo Broos being forced to reshuffle his squad before and during the match, with youngsters Mbekezeli Mbozaki and Zuko Mdunyelwa making their debuts.

Nyiko Mobbie has been ruled out of the Nigeria clash after being forced off with injury in the 15th minute at the Free State Stadium.

“What I saw in training gave me confidence in the new boys,” Broos said of the fresh faces. “When you have to come in like Zuko, after just 15 minutes, it is not easy - especially in your first game, but he did very well. I was confident the moment he came on because of what I had seen in training. That goes for all the new guys.

“It is a pity that we have injuries again. For Moloisane it’s not too serious, but Mobbie is out, so we will need to call someone else. That’s maybe the only negative point of this game. But injuries can happen. Lesotho was very motivated and aggressive, and that also contributed.”

Despite the sour relations between the two nations in the build-up to the qualifier, Likuena coach Leslie Notsi insisted his team did not intentionally set out to injure South African players.

“What happened outside, in terms of administrative issues, did not affect our preparations or how we approached the game against Bafana. We respect our opponents. We never go out there to try and injure anyone, because we wouldn’t want that to happen to our players.”