Amajita coach Thabo Senong says his side will have to dig deeper as they prepare for their second U20 World Cup encounter against Italy on Wednesday.

South Africa fought valiantly in their opening encounter against Japan, but succumbed to a 2-1 defeat after initially taking the lead. Their European counterparts sit in the same boat as they lost 1-0 to Uruguay on Sunday.

Senong highlighted the threat that Italy pose to them in their must-win encounter, in addition to calling on intelligence from his players in their bid to progess past the group stage of the tournament.

“We knew from the start that we were in a tough group – Japan, Champions of Asia; Uruguay, Champions of South America – and they also won their first game yesterday, as well as Italy who are very tough to penetrate,” he told Safa’s website.

“So it wont be easy and again we have to work hard to open up the Italians, we have to compete with them in set-pieces and aerial battles, we need to dig deeper to get a positive result.

“For this mission we need players with intelligence, with big hearts – but I have no doubt in the ability of our team. The mood and atmosphere is still positive in the camp, the boys are still fully focused for the next two matches in our group,” he added.

Amajita have been boosted by the late arrivals of Reeve Frosler and Teboho Mokoena in their camp in South Korea.

Photo: Safa.net

— This story originally appeared on SportsClub