Draw against Nigeria a fair result – South Africa coach Hugo Broos

South Africa head coach Hugo Broos had no complaints with the result after seeing his side held by Nigeria on home turf in the 2026 World Cup qualifying game on Tuesday.

In a high-stake clash at the Free State Toyota Stadium, the Bafana Bafana played out a 1-1 draw with the Super Eagles, delaying their chances of securing World Cup qualification this month.

South Africa opened the scoring in the 25^th-minute mark following an own goal from captain William Troost-Ekong. However, Calvin Bassey stepped up and leveled the score for the visitors as both teams went to the halftime break with a draw.

And with no additional goal in the second half, the much-anticipated ended in a stalemate.

Speaking after the game, Broos expressed his outfit stalemate against Nigeria is a fair result.

“If the South African national team had played against Nigeria two years ago as we did today, we would have lost. In the second half, we realized we couldn’t win the match by playing football, only by fighting, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We fought just as hard as our opponents, we were as strong as they were, and I think the result is fair—neither team really deserved to win”

‘But I believe we made the best of the situation by securing this point. Now we only need one more win, and we have two chances to get it, so let’s try to achieve that as soon as possible,” Broos said.

The 73-year-old Belgian admitted that preparing for Nigeria involved a lot of tactical nuances.

“On one hand, the team wants to play football, but on the other, the team tries to win with physical strength—so for the first half hour, we managed that, but after that, yes, Nigeria tried to get back into the game with their physical style, and it worked for them.

If we had defended just a bit more aggressively, they would never have scored, first of all, and secondly, it was a handball. But anyway, the score was 1-1, and you know, from a team like Nigeria, you can expect them to play a different kind of football. That’s exactly what happened, but when you see the progress South Africa has made at this level, it’s massive,” Broos added.

South Africa will play their next away match against Zimbabwe in a month, and a victory will secure their World Cup spot. Currently, the Bafana Bafana sit top of group C, accumulating 17 points from eight matches.