Morocco win evidence of Bafana progress says Hugo Broos

The AFCON qualifier at Soccer City was played more than 13 months after South Africa were thrashed 5-0 by then world champions France in Lille and a deflating defeat to Morocco in the away leg in Rabat.

Broos had not raised hopes of beating the Atlas Lions, but a victory that sent Bafana top of the group had the Belgian mentor glowing.

"I don't have to tell you that I'm very, very happy today. Not only because we won the game, I think we deserved to win the game. See the chances we had but I'm more happy about the performance and I said before the game that the result is not important but I'd like to see a good performance, I'd like to see the progression we made in the last months," he said.

The two goals came from forwards Percy Tau and Zakhele Lepasa, while Morocco struck one back through winger Hakim Ziyech.

Broos says Bafana were in control.

"We played against a very good team; we were never dominated. On the contrary, we sometimes dominate yet three, four very good chances to score. If I remember maybe one or two [chances] for Morocco so that means that we were [dominating] from the first to the last minute of the game," the coach explained.

Bafana are still unbeaten at home under Broos, who was appointed head coach in May 2021 on a five-year contract.

He says all he needed was time.

"I'm happy that I went on to give confidence in that group of players. I believed in them even when some people didn't because I made bad choices. I didn't understand the South African culture but you see, you don't build a team in one day. You need time. "