Times Of Swaziland: WE CAN BEAT EGYPT - ‘PUPU’

WE CAN BEAT EGYPT - ‘PUPU’
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Themba Zwane on 10/09/2018 08:51:00


MANZINI – Talented midfielder, Banele ‘Pupu’ Sikhondze, is confident that
Sihlangu can win against Egypt in their next AFCON qualifiers fixture.
The Polokwane City man made these comments shortly after they were defeated 2
– 0 by Tunisia yesterday afternoon at the Mavuso Sports Centre. He said they
needed to go back at training to fix all the mistakes that cost the national
team in yesterday’s encounter against the North African giants. “We just
need to go back to the Jim and fix our mistakes, if we prepare well, anything is
possible, we can win against Egypt,” said the play-maker.
Mthunzi Mkhontfo on the other hand said the team played well, they played
according to the style of the coach but things just did not go their way.
“However, we did play much better in the second half as we created more
scoring opportunities,” said the winger. He said the national team should play
against Egypt in their next AFCON fixture the same way they planned and played
the second stanza against Tunisia. He said if they did this, they stood a chance
to produce a good result against the Pharaohs. Sabelo ‘Sawa’ Gamedze said he
was not surprised that the team lost to Tunisia yesterday.
In fact, he said they exceeded expectations as it was a new team and their
performance showed that there was good progress. “The only thing we need to do
is to go back and work harder at training,” he said. Sawa said being recalled
to the national team was a huge confidence booster for him.  “I was really
unlucky to hit the cross-bar,” said ‘Buffs’ Phiwa Dlamini after his
acrobatic strike in the second half unluckily hit the cross-bar. Otherwise, he
said the team’s performance was good despite losing 2 - 0 to visiting Tunisia.
“I think defensively we played ok but the problem is that we were unable to
attack in the first half,” noted the striker.
He added that they had scoring opportunities in the second stanza but were
unlucky not to convert a goal. The talisman said he thought they had enough time
to prepare for their third AFCON qualifiers game against Egypt. He said with
good preparation, they would perform much better against Egypt. Royal
Leopard’s Zweli Nxumalo said the Tunisian side was just tactically superior to
the locals. He said the Tunisians out-classed Sihlangu in the first half but
they managed to contain them in the second half. “We will play better against
Egypt as long as we correct our mistakes, worker harder and double our
efforts,” said the attacking midfielder.