Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki says he still believes in his players despite the 2-0 loss to Ghana, saying that it was balanced game where the Black Stars simply had the power and strength to score the goals.

Bafana were looking to get their Afcon 2021 quakification campaign off to a good start but were second best to the west Africans at the Cape Coast Stadium on Thursday evening.

Bafana will now have to quickly turn their attentions to their second group C game against Sudan at the Orlando Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking after the match Ntseki revealed that he was not going to take the loss to heart and instead is focusing on bouncing back against Sudan on Sunday.

‘I think let’s understand how we operate as coaches – you select the team and prepare the team to win. You can’t come to a press conference and say, ‘I’m in this game to lose’. I am still confident in my players even though we lost 2-0. If you look at the game itself, it was more balanced. As I said, they had more power and strength in getting the goals,’ Ntseki told the media in Ghana.

‘It’s not like we were outplayed in situations where we conceded. It happens in a game of football. When you are not balanced, the opponent takes advantage. I think I kept on saying yesterday when everyone else was trying to single out individual players from Ghana, I said they were a strong team and they’ve got a very strong history in terms of their playing capabilities.

‘And as of now, I am still confident in my players and my team, and like I said, well done to Ghana,’ continued Ntseki.

Bafana now sit behind both Ghana and Sudan, who beat Sao Tome 4-0 to top group C after one game played, but this does not worry the Bafana coach.

‘In the qualifiers, you always have those situations where some of the teams in your group will win and you end up losing a match but I think we prepared the team very well for the back-to-back matches.’