Nigeria head coach Jose Peseiro believes the level of the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the large presence of the squad coming from the same team is an invaluable advantage for Bafana Bafana.
The Super Eagles will face off against South Africa today in Bouake for a place in the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
In the pre-match press conference, the Portuguese coach was pressed on more than three occasions about the favourites tag and pressure to beat Bafana due to holding more high-profile players against a side with 20 PSL players out of the 23-man squad.
“I think it was the same thing against Morocco, 98% of the Moroccans play in Europe, but they lost,” Peseiro said when asked, if their squad dominated by European-based players makes them favourites.
“Football… firstly I think in South Africa they have a good league, I was there to evaluate and speak with Chippa United when I was there for Stanley Nwabali, it’s a professional league.
“Their national team has nine players from the same team, Mamelodi Sundowns, for that, they show… if a team plays with nine players, the first match was seven, after that nine – playing together in the team for one or two years, they improve their organisation.
“For that, this team, shows until now… very good organisation, very good. Only conceded two goals, one more than us, they are compact, they don’t allow space, and they look like one team, which is not easy to have in a national team, to play like one team.”
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Peseiro who kicked off his managerial career as the assistant to former South Africa head coach Carlos Quieroz during their time at Real Madrid went on to state that coach Hugo Broos has also spent more than two years with the bulk of the selected squad.
“They are with the same coach of six to eight months and they improve their organisation, there’s certain moments in the game [they benefit], in the national team we don’t have time to do it, but we have good players of course,” he continued.
“Good players can improve quickly, they know football, they play big competitions, big teams in Europe, I’m happy about that but at the same time, you know this team [South Africa] don’t play in Europe but they play in the same team.
“I remember when Spain played in the same team, seven guys from Barcelona and three from Real Madrid, the national team showed the best organisation and quality in their game in many years because they spent a lot of time together.
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“[But] if some players of the Super Eagles can’t play their normal game without [this] pressure [to beat them], they cannot play for the Super Eagles.”
The fixture will kick off at 17h00 in Ivory Coast (19:00 SAST) with a scorching 35 degrees expected for the early kickoff before Ivory Coast and DR Congo do battle in Abidjan.