Congo finally arrives ahead of AFCON qualifier clash against Bafana Bafana

There’s been confusion throughout this week about the delayed arrival of the visitors ahead of their crucial Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) game against Bafana Bafana at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Gqeberha tonight (19:00).

With internal football issues rearing its ugly head in Brazzaville last week, there were also doubts about this game, but Ngata allayed those in an exclusive interview with SABC Sport.

"No, it's not a big deal because we were supposed to arrive yesterday, we were supposed to actually leave yesterday but because we heard that the airport closes at 08:00 pm, we wanted to leave earlier than that but we couldn't. It was nothing major but we managed to be here," Ngata said.

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Reports emerged from Congo last week that Fecofoot was in trouble; the team's announcement to play against Bafana Bafana was also delayed after the government, through military forces, removed Fecofoot staff from offices. 

But Ngata, as expected, did not want to get into details about their challenges and proclaimed his side’s readiness for this game. 

He also talks about the changes in his squad.

"It wasn't too bad but we are happy, we are very focused on this game even though we didn't have international players on time because you know that the league players, play until Sundays. So, we managed to have them, we are happy with what we put together so far," he added.

"There are no major changes, about three or four players that have injuries so that's the reason why we bring others, even though we don't have our three first-team players but we believe that with the pool that we pulled from, they are not new players that are coming in. They are the same players that we used to use but now we just bring them back into the team and we are ready for tomorrow's game."