'We can shock them again' – What South Africa coach Broos have said ahead of feisty clash with Super Eagles

South Africa national team coach Hugo Broos is confident he will come up with the strategies to outwit Nigeria head coach Finidi George when the two tacticians meet next week.

Nigeria will host South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo in a matchday three encounter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification series on June 7.

The match is a repeat of the clash between the two former continental champions at the semifinals of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire earlier this year.

Nigeria came out on top through penalties that time after a late Teboho Mokoena strike cancelled out William Troost-Ekong’s opener for the Super Eagles.

South Africa coach Broos was not impressed with Nigeria’s tactical setup for that encounter, with Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro deploying a defence-first strategy.

However, ex-international Finidi George, Super Eagles’ assistant coach at the AFCON, has been appointed as Peseiro’s successor and the former Ajax winger took charge of Nigeria’s friendlies against Ghana and Mali in March.

Broos saw enough of Finidi during those games to conclude that he would be more offensive than his former boss.

And the Belgian gaffer has promised to design another antidote to counter Finidi’s best plans.

“We will try to shock them again. It’s a little bit different than the team of AFCON,” Broos said.

“With Finidi George they have a coach who thinks more offensively. Peseiro, he was a little bit more defensive and I saw that certainly in the game against us, he was always telling the team to go back.

“Also in the final they didn’t really play offensively, they just tried to be good defensively and then hoping on a counterattack or a situation in front of the goal where they could score.

“I saw two games against Mali and Ghana, it’s different. They take a little bit more initiative. It’s not the team anymore who went back and wait.

“They also try to make pressure early in the game and close to the goal of the opponent, so we have to look for something now that we can shock them again like we did for the game in Ivory Coast.”

Nigeria have recorded only one competitive loss against South Africa since their first-ever meeting 32 years ago.

During that period, the Super Eagles have won seven and drawn four of 12 competitive fixtures against the Bafana Bafana.