Ntseki backs Bafana to deliver in must-win qualifier against Malawi

South Africa will host Malawi at Loftus Versfeld this afternoon, needing nothing less than a win to overturn a 1-0 first-leg defeat suffered in Lilongwe a week ago.

Ntseki says his side must play with one goal in mind: to win.

"The most important thing is that we are professionals. These players come from their respective PSL teams, so they know what it's like when you have to play to win.

"When you play to win, you lay the foundation, and the foundation in this case will be a very strong defensive approach without the ball," expressed Ntseki.

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The upcoming CHAN 2025 tournament will, for the first time, be co-hosted by three East African nations: Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Ntseki emphasizes that his team must find the balance between attacking intent and defensive discipline, ensuring they don’t concede while pushing for goals.

"We have to deal with set plays very well, should we concede set plays. We are applying a no-concede approach, but it's also an approach that will assist us in scoring goals. We are planning to be very disciplined in defense and aggressive in attack," declared the head coach. 

After missing the first leg due to club commitments, Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Neo Maema returns to captain the side. 

Maema previously led the team to a 4–2 aggregate win over Egypt in the earlier qualifying round.

Ntseki says the return of Maema is a major boost and outlines how they plan to approach what he expects to be a tightly contested match against a defensively organized Malawian side.

"When you look at this game, we are going to send more players in attack so that we can outnumber their defensive block, because even in Malawi, they were very deep defensively," said a fired up Ntseki. 

Kick-off for this crunch qualifier is at 15:00.