Pitso: Why Sebelebele over Matuludi?

After Bafana Bafana's 2-1 win over Guinea in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers, coach Pitso Mosimane has explained why he chose Kamogelo Sebelebele over Thabang Matuludi, with regular right-back Khuliso Mudau out injured.

Mosimane started his second spell in charge on a winning note, as Bafana were also off to a perfect start in Group D after goals in each half by Ime Okon and Samukele Kabini gave them a narrow win.

Sebelebele got the nod to start at right-back in the absence of Mudau, and the veteran mentor was full of praise for the Orlando Pirates wing-back, who was named the official Man of the Match.

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“This is a quality team. I mean, their wingers are full of trickery. (Lamine Diaby)-Fadiga, he came on and created a problem also on the left side, but Sebelebele was there to match the duels, and that number ten who was giving problems in the first half; they had so much good quality wingers,” Mosimane said in a post-match press conference.

“The players from Guinea are big boys, tall and strong. I was worried a bit about Sebelebele on set-pieces, but it was like for like, the people he was marking were not very tall, and he's got the speed to recover the ball and he's good on one-v-ones. Okay, in the first half he had a little bit of a challenge because the guy has a lot of trickery.

“But he found him out and he managed to settle. He was Man of the Match, right? Unbelievable, he played well. I guess it's about the confidence in the areas. I mean, he's playing every day in those spaces,” Mosimane said.

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The former Al Ahly coach continued and stressed what made the difference for the former TS Galaxy wing-back to start ahead of the newly signed Mamelodi Sundowns right-back.

“Normally at Pirates you know he is, right? He is always at the end of the attack but not today. This is not the game for him to be doing that. I needed Sebelebele not to overlap too much. I needed him to do what he had to do. Mutuludi is good but there's a lot of tricks here, one-v-ones, so Sebelebele was the right person for the game,” Mosimane insisted.

Bafana have travelled to Egypt to play against Eritrea in their second game of the group on Wednesday evening.

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Bafana Bafana Kamogelo Sebelebele Khuliso Mudau Pitso Mosimane Thabang Matuludi