Hugo Broos confirms Thapelo Maseko out of Eagles clash

Bafana Bafana winger  Thapelo Maseko is out of Wednesday’s semifinal clash against Super Eagles of Nigeria no thanks to injury the team’s coach Hugo Broos has confirmed.

Mamelodi Sundowns’ young winger Maseko, who has been used as a sub by Broos, pulled up with a hamstring injury as SA beat Cape Verde on penalties thanks to captain Ronwen Williams’ four spectacular saves in the penalty shoot-out.

“He has a grade 3 muscle injury so the tournament is over for him,” Broos said on Tuesday. “But he stays with us — he won’t go to SA. And we won’t replace him.”

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Nigeria have an impressive record against SA, a team the Super Eagles have dominated over three decades. The West Africans have won seven, drawn five and lost two of 14 clashes.

Bafana Bafana winger Thapelo Maseko out of Eagles clash.

They also have a proud Nations Cup record, which they have won three times. In the past 11 years Nigeria won the 2013 edition in SA (adding to their 1980 and 1994 titles).

Bafana, the 1996 champions and 1998 runners-up, reached their first quarterfinal since 2002 in 2013, another in 2019 in Egypt and have battled for qualifications to the tournament far too often between those. 

“We are very happy and motivated that tomorrow we play the semifinals of Afcon,” Broos said. “For many people it was unexpected but we did it and that means SA became a good team.

“It’s also more than 20 years since SA played a semifinal and even more for a final, so that means we have got a lot of motivation. The semifinal we are already in but we also want to play in the final on Sunday.

“We are playing against a very good team — No 6 in the African rankings and that has a lot of players based abroad.

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“So I think for many people Nigeria would be the favourites tomorrow. But as you know in football it’s not always the favourite who wins.”

Nigeria were rocked by World Cup qualifying draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in November that put Portuguese coach José Peseiro under pressure going into the Nations Cup. Their start with a 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea could have been disastrous, but they recovered to a four-match winning streak. 

Ivory Coast meet Democratic Republic of Congo in second semifinal Wednesday at 9pm.