Bafana v Nigeria –  Nwabali and Williams are shining a bright light on PSL 

Bafana Bafana will face the might of the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations semifinals on Wednesday, in a game with an abundance of sub-plots. 

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One of these is an intriguing battle involving two goalkeepers from South Africa’s Premier Soccer League. 

On the Nigerian side is Chippa United shot-stopper Stanley Nwabali, who has kept four successive clean sheets in helping Jose Peseiro’s side into the last four. 

The 27-year-old was a surprise choice in the Nigeria squad for this AFCON, but he has been brilliant as Nigeria have taken down Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon and Algeria enroute to the semifinals. 

In a case of ‘anything you can do I can do better,’ however, Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has also kept four straight clean sheets in goal for South Africa. 

And to top that off he saved an unbelievable four penalties in the quarterfinal shootout on Saturday against Cape Verde to seal a meeting with Nigeria. 

“It’s definitely the best night of my career, I don’t think anything will top this unless we go on and win it,” said Williams after picking up his Man-of-the-Match award. 

“We know it’s going to be a bigger one (against Nigeria), so we need to prepare accordingly and we are looking forward to the challenge.” 

Williams gave credit to Bafana’s video analysts after he dived the correct way for all five of Cape Verde’s penalties, saving four, which meant Bafana only converting two of four spot kicks didn’t matter.

“They (the analysts) sent me so many clips, my phone is full of penalty clips. So, credit to the analysts because it’s not easy to get footage of these players, they are playing all over the world. The work the analysts did,  it made my job easier because I had an idea where most of the players were going,” added Williams. 

Bafana do not have the best record against the Super Eagles, beating them just twice in 14 meetings and only once in a competitive fixture, Tokelo Rantie and Percy Tau netting in a 2-0 AFCON qualifying win in Uyo in June 2017.

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Nigeria knocked Bafana out of the AFCON the last time South Africa were involved, beating Bafana 2-1 in the quarterfinals in 2019, while they also hammered Bafana 4-0 in the group stages of the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia.

Bafana, however, have shown little regard for history in this competition so far, and will feel they can spring another surprise on Wednesday.