By SABC Sport
10th September 2023
Namibia coach Collin Benjamin admitted his side missed prolific striker Peter Shalulile in their goalless draw with South Africa on Saturday.
Neither side was able to break the deadlock at the Orlando Stadium in a tie where Bafana Bafana bossed possession and created significantly more chances.
But Benjamin felt the addition of injured Mamelodi Sundowns striker Shalulile would have turned the tie in Namibia's favour, with his team having also missed a few clear-cut opportunties themselves during the tie.
The head coach said in the Citizen: "If you have a striker of his quality you know one (of the chances) would go in. You can't replace that in the team. His team (Sundowns) is finding it dififcult to replace him so how do you think it is for us?"
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Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has pleaded with South Africans to support the national team following poor attendance at Orland Stadium.
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Benjamin added: "For us it gives other opportunities to players that they have to take. You can only learn from these matches, you have to go into the middle of the area and put it in.
"It is a about experience and what we needs is these kinds of games."
Namibia will qualify for next year's Africa Cup of Nations finals unless Cameroon and Burundi play out a high scoring draw in their clash on Tuesday.
"It will be huge (to qualify) if you look at our history we are not as fortunate as our big brothers up here (Bafana) we cannot just qualify like that. It takes a lot of hard work, if you look at our history we were there in 2008 and then in 2019. If we do it again four years later, it will be an achievement, especially if you look at where we have come from," concluded Benjamin.