Hugo Broos compares Bafana Bafana-Namibia clash to Belgium and Holland rivalry

Bafana and the Brave Warriors meet in a crucial 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Group E game at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Korhogo, in Northern Côte d’Ivoire this evening (8pm, 10pm SA Time).

With close to 10 players in the Namibian team plying their trade in SA, Broos says this adds to the rivalry of this clash.

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"As I said it's something special. All those guys are playing in South Africa. So, they want to show something. They want to beat us and it's a normal thing in sport. When you are two neighbour countries and they play against each other, I know that with Belgium players against Holland, it's the game of the year. So, tomorrow [tonight] it will be the same also for us," Broos said

Bafana Bafana played a goalless draw against Namibia during an international friendly in September last year at Orlando Stadium, but that was a different team, with lots of experiments.

Namibia was also without Peter Shalulile on the day, another reason why Broos feels that that game has no meaning to this evening’s crunch encounter.

"You know, I don't think you can compare the friendly game of four months ago and the game of tomorrow because tomorrow [this evening] it's a crucial game for us but it wasn't really a crucial game four months ago because it was a friendly game and we were in preparation for the AFCON,” Broos added.

“As you remember I think we had a lot of new players who played that game, younger players also because for us it was an opportunity to give them the chances and to see how good they were for the future. On the other side, you have Namibia as it was a friendly game, I think they will have another moral and mentality at kick off tomorrow [this evening]."