Billiat’s warning to Chiefs teammates ahead of Zimbabwe, Bafana clash
The Warriors and Bafana are set to meet in a World Cup qualifier tonight.
Zimbabwe star Khama Billiat has retired from international football (Libery Mugari/BackpagePix)
Khama Billiat has warned his Kaizer Chiefs teammates on duty with South Africa not to expect any favours from Zimbabwe.
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The Warriors and Bafana are set to meet in a 2022 Fifa World Cup Group G qualifier at the FNB Stadium tonight (Thursday) at 9pm.
While South Africa are desperate to win the match to keep their hopes of qualifying for the next round of World Cup qualifiers, bottom-placed Warriors are playing for pride as they have no chance of qualifying .
Many South Africans are hoping that their neighbours will do them a favour by giving away the match to Bafana Bafana. Billiat, however, is ready to break the hearts of his Chiefs’ teammates and South African fans.
“It’s a big game and we know South Africa need the points more than us, but we need to be professional and represent our country with honour,” Billiat said as quoted by the Newsday of Zimbabwe.
“We are taking the game seriously and, like I said, we are professionals representing our big nation so we are going to apply the things that we are working on at training. We believe in the coach and in his tactics, so if we do what he tells us to do then we stand a chance to get a good result.”
Billiat will come up against some familiar faces on Thursday, including his closest friend and Chiefs teammate Keegan Dolly.
Other Chiefs teammates in Hugo Broos’ final 24-man squad for the match are goalkeeper Bruce Bvuma, Njabulo Blom, Njabulo Ngcobo and Sfiso Hlanti.
“It’s good that we know each other, they know me as much as I know them. They know a lot of guys in our team who play here, but that does not mean we are going to make life easy for them,” said Billiat.
“We are going into the game motivated and with a steady state of mind. I want the players to play their normal game. Everyone who is here deserves to be here and just has to feel comfortable representing the nation. This is a big stage and a chance that we always dreamt of when we were young. So being in the national team you need to be very relaxed, make sure you enjoy the moment and work very hard to win every match.”
