It was a game of two halves, but in the end, Bafana Bafana walked away from their World Cup qualifier against Nigeria with a very valuable point.
The Group C encounter at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium ended 1-1 after goals on either side of halftime on Friday night.
Coach Hugo Broos’ men were unlucky to just be a goal up at the break, and Nigeria could say the same after bossing much of the second half.
Stellenbosch FC’s Iqraam Rayners, preferred to Burnley’s Lyle Foster in the starting XI, made a couple of menacing runs into the Nigeria box early on, as did the wide players Elias Mokwana and Percy Tau as Bafana grew in confidence.
When the welcome is warm, and the people are friendly! Thank you for the warm embrace Bloem 🌹#BafanaPride #WavQualifiers pic.twitter.com/YLchnO7sH1
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Bafana were eventually rewarded when Themba Zwane played a brilliant one-two pass with Sphephelo Sithole, found himself with space in the Nigerian box and put the ball in the back of Stanley Nwabali’s net to make it 1-0.
In the second half, Nigeria came out more switched on, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru equalised immediately when he held the ball up and fired past captain Ronwen Williams from the edge of the area.
The goal resulted in a shift in momentum, and suddenly, Bafana were the ones under pressure and needing to keep things tight.
Clearly on top, and with SA in sixes and sevens, Nigeria were unlucky not to hit the front when Samuel Chukwueze’s close range effort hit the crossbar.
And in stoppage time, Ademola Lookman’s chance to put the ball in the back of the net, couldn’t beat Williams, who produced a great reflex save.