Bafana Bafana have a new big hero in Ronwen Williams. The 32-year-old brilliantly saved four of five penalties in the Afcon 2023 quarter-final against Cape Verde in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast on Saturday night.
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Bafana Bafana defeats Cape Verde to qualify for AFCON 2023 semi-finals
The match ended goalless after 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time, but Williams made an incredible save in the 88th minute to deny Gilson Tavares the winning goal.
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Bafana also won the penalty shootout 2-1, which is a very unusual score for a penalty shootout, right? Well, no goalie in a major tournament has ever saved 4 out of 5 penalties.
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Manager Hugo Bruce admitted the nerves of the match made him look a few years older, but man-of-the-match Williams saved the night.
“Let's say six hours ago I was 71 years old. Now I'm 75,” Bulls said. iDiskiTimes.
“It was a stressful game, certainly with penalties. You know what happens when you have to take a penalty, but it's a very special situation for a player,” added the Bafana leader.
“Sometimes we play a little game after practice and give penalties, but very few players missed the penalties, but today you will see what happened not only to us but also to the players of Cape Verde. We can be happy, but the players want penalties. We were not lucky today because we had a very good keeper. Even if we could have avoided four penalties, this It's not luck anymore. You can save one, but you can't save four. This is not luck.
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“Not only that, he helped a player who was left alone in front of me two minutes before the end. Yes, he was in the game. I don't think you could pick anyone else,” Because he really is the man of the match,'' concluded the Bafana tactician.
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Sando Thabete praises Ronwen Williams
After watching the game on Saturday night, 947's Drivetime show host Tabes declared Williams a national hero.
https://twitter.com/Thando_Thabethe/status/1753915911839305926
Meanwhile, Bafana will face Nigeria's Super Eagles in the semi-finals on Wednesday at 7pm.
You can find more articles by Siseko Gwegwe. here.
