Bafana beat Madagascar to book Plate final spot

Bafana Bafana have advanced to the COSAFA Plate final after defeating Madagascar 2-1 in the semi-finals at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on Friday.

This is after South Africa was eliminated from the COSAFA Cup tournament following their 5-4 loss on penalties to Mozambique this past Wednesday evening.

The Plate final will take place on Sunday, 17 July at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.

Meanwhile, coach Helman Mkhalele who started the regional competition on the wrong foot is happy how his youthful Bafana squad is improving in preparations for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Qualifiers.

The 52-year-old mentor assembled Under-21 players for this year’s COSAFA tournament currently underway in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

Mkhalele reckons that giving the Under-23 players the needed playing exposure will go a long way in helping South Africa qualify for their third in a row Olympic Games as he believes that the vision for building the Olympic squad is on track.

“This was good exposure to the lads as we continue to build towards the Under-23 2024 Olympic Qualifiers,” Mkhalele explained.

The 2024 Under-23 Olympic qualifiers will start in September this year.

“We came into this tournament with a plan of preparing the next generation of South Africa’s National Under-23 players for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Qualifiers,” he said after their defeat to the Mambas.

“Both the FIFA and the CAF calendars do not cater enough fixtures for the national Under-23 teams and we took this tournament as a perfect opportunity to build for the qualifiers which will start in September.

“The lads demonstrated great hunger in that match, dominated play and unfortunately goals didn’t come our way.

“We lost that tie on penalties and we now shift our focus onto the Plate semi-final fixtures as we continue to build this next generation of SA Under-23 players.”

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