Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has acknowledged that the two points dropped against Uganda in their opening match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers will need to be recovered elsewhere.

Despite dominating the first half, Bafana was held to a 2-2 draw by a resilient Ugandan side at Orlando Stadium on Friday. Even Ugandan fans, who had expected a comfortable victory after the first half for South Africa, were stunned when their team staged a remarkable comeback with two quick second-half goals.

Bafana managed to equalize in the dying minutes of the match through debutant Thalente Mbatha.

Looking ahead to their second Group K match against South Sudan on Tuesday, Broos emphasized the importance of securing points away from home: “First of all, when you lose two points at home, you have to take three points somewhere.

“So, you choose maybe in Congo (away), maybe in Uganda (away) or maybe not. Because that will depend also what will be Tuesday the result of that game in Uganda.  

“Maybe it is not so bad the loss of two points on Friday. But we will see in the next games. 

“We will go on Tuesday and then we will be left with one month further and maybe two or three games against Congo.”  

In previous qualifiers, Bafana had a similar experience, losing to Morocco in June 2022 despite taking an early lead. However, they were able to recover by defeating Morocco in South Africa and securing four points against Liberia, ultimately finishing second behind the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists.

Given their dropped points on Friday, Bafana will need to perform well in future matches to secure their place in the 2025 AFCON tournament, which will be held in Morocco.