Peter Shaulile - The sooner we forget about this heavy loss, the better

This was the reaction of the Brave Warriors’ captain and leading Mamelodi Sundowns striker Peter Shalulile in the mixed zone last night at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium in Khorogo, in Côte d'Ivoire.

Just a few days after Namibia had made history, winning their first-ever game at the AFCON beating Tunisia 1-0, against their Southern African neighbours they had no answers.

Shalulile says they have to quickly forget about this game, and focus on the final group game against Mali on Wednesday in San Pedro.

READ: Hugo Broos breaks down Bafana Bafana's effective game plan after Namibia's humiliation

"First of all, it was a tough game but credit goes to them [Bafana Bafana] because they won and us, we'll just go to the drawing board to fix what we didn't do and move on to the next one which is Mali," Shalulile said.

The early penalty in the 14th minute after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) spotted Riaan Hanamub’s handball inside the box, opened the floodgates.

By halftime, they were already 3-0 down, and Bafana’s good game management made the second half difficult for them to launch a comeback.

Shalulile says they were not surprised by Bafana’s approach to this game as they ditched the passing game and exploited the open spaces of his team.

"Well, the approach was fine, an early penalty but who am I to say it was not a penalty? So, that gave them the energy to keep on going. It was not our day today but as a team, we'll take it and move on to the next one which is Mali," Shalulile added.

This statement is also supported by Deon Hotto, who was not entirely surprised to see Grant Kekana and Thapelo Morena starting in this game, but maybe their roles and how they would be utilized caught them off-guard.

"Ya, to be honest, it wasn't a good one in the office but credit to South Africa. For us as Namibians, we just need to regroup again and look forward to the last game against Mali,” said Hotto.

“There wasn't any surprise because when we got the first 11, we knew already Thapelo is obviously gonna play on the wing and Kekana will slot in where Siyanda Xulu was playing so, we knew what they were bringing so credit to them. It did work for them tonight and for us, it didn't work, we just have to regroup and chin up again.”