“It was a tough match but we were well prepared to bring the team to a competitive level. We had to push our players when it seemed they were ready to give up after fighting too hard. We are proud of the players and they should be proud too, it was a team effort,” said Simon Ngomane, one of the joint coaches of the side.

Ngomane adds that it was a very physical match which has left several players with knocks; but the technical team remains hopeful that the medical department will revive the concerned players ahead of the crucial clash against Zimbabwe. The team will also have a light training session this afternoon to help some players to recover as they will need everyone on board to face the home side that defeated Botswana in the last eight.

“Playing the hosts is tough because of the crowd, but also Zimbabwe is a tough side. Even though they were not tested against Botswana they showed they have depth in midfield and their strikers could be deadly. But we have to apply pressure from the onset, they are good but not unbeatable. I am comfortable we will come with a plan to offset their plans,” said Ngomane.

As the defending champions of the tournament, the South Africans are aware they can lift the trophy once again, but they are taking one match at a time.

“We have indicated that our policy is one match at a time, we want maximum focus on each match that we are playing. We started with Angola in the quarterfinals, now what is important is that we need to continue working as hard as we can and not put ourselves under pressure thinking of the final and winning the trophy – we want to deal with this upcoming match and move on to the next assignment,” warned Ngomane.

South Africa will face Zimbabwe at 15h00 with Zambia and Mozambique contesting the other semi-final.

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