SA Coach says Cameroon prepared them for Afcon

Bafana Bafana head coach, Shakes Mashaba, believes the game against Cameroon has showed them what to expect at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Bafana fought back from a goal down to claim a 1-1 draw against the Indomitable Lions on Saturday night and 'Shakes' says the clash has helped a lot in their preparations.

“We create chances but we don’t finish them off. We planned well, we knew what to expect. They are a good side, very experienced and hard working. They were all over us in the opening 30 minutes but my boys were very resilient and withstood the pressure and showed great grit. We knew we would come back and come back we did in the second half. The Cameroonians gave us what to expect in Equatorial Guinea,” Mashaba said in a statement released by SAFA.

“Cameroonians are strong, big and physical and this is what you expect from West Africans. But I also want to believe that the people who came to watch the game got their money’s worth because there was everything one could expect in a match of this magnitude. We are happy we were able to compete in this match and it helped us a great deal with our preparations.”

Meanwhile, captain Dean Furman believes the side can get even better following the draw and heaped praise on Sibusiso Vilakazi.

“We got off to the worst possible start so early in the game and for about 20 minutes we didn’t recover from that, but started picking up in the last 15 minutes of the first half. We had a good talk with the coach at half time and he told us to believe, believe in our ability, believe in our team and that’s what we did,” said Furman.

“(Sibusiso) Vilakazi came on and he was great – that’s the thing about our squad, everyone is fighting for places, everyone wants to start, everyone wants to have the jersey on. The boys who came on made a big difference and we are proud of our second half performance. We can only get better from this.”