Congo’s stern warning for Bafana Bafana

The 5-0 drubbing that Congo received at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Gqeberha on Friday night, has put them in a very difficult position.

Failure to beat Bafana will see The Red Devils falling behind in the race for the top two spots of Group K and Ngata is also talking about making some changes.

"Yes, yes, from what we prepared, I was sure that our players were going to play very well but I'm surprised to see they changed their state of mind. In the second leg, hopefully, things will change,” Ngata said.

“We'll prepare for that physically and mentally, I think they can play good games at home. We know that South Africa is better than us in many points but we knew that South Africa is a big team but what we produced today [Friday night] is not what we were expecting to do.

“We are hoping that next week, we are going to change our mentality and physically we are going to change the players."

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Prior to Friday’s game, Ngata had downplayed their late arrival in South Africa and said it wouldn’t affect them.

After the 5-0 hammering, he maintained his earlier stance as he refused to make an excuse.

"So, the reason for coming late here, we can accept that, it's not important. So, what's important is when you go to war, you must be men, good soldiers. We prepared for the game, we had only one big training at home, we came here but the problem is that we didn't lose the match because we were tactically bad but because of our mentality. The spirit we have in the field is not the one we expected here," he added.

Besides the synthetic pitch that will be known to them, Ngata is also banking on the big support from home fans at the Stade Alphonse Massemba-Débat in Brazzaville to give them an advantage against Bafana Bafana.

"So, I'm going to remind them that we are going to play at home. We played here with a big team and a big public [fans]. At home, we are going to play with a big team but the public [fans] will be ours. So, I have to remind them they have to play to satisfy our fans."