Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has criticised the match officials following his side’s 1-0 defeat to Ghana in their final Fifa World Cup Group G qualifier at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium on Sunday.

A solitary goal from Ghanian captain Andre Ayew from the penalty spot saw the Black Stars advance to the World Cup playoffs as the winners of Group G, despite Bafana finishing on the same number of points and goal difference.

However, the Black Stars booked their place in the next round through a tie-breaker of having a superior number of goals scored with both teams finishing on 13 points.

“I congratulate Ghana but I congratulate my boys also because we played against a very aggressive opponent which the referee allowed,” Broos said.

“I am very disappointed in the result but I’m proud of my players. But I have to say, the referee today allowed Ghana to be too aggressive.

“I have nothing against aggressive play but it has to be legal aggression.”

The Belgian though stopped short of criticising the referee’s decision to award the Black Stars a controversial penalty.

“I couldn’t see it. I just saw Daniel Amartey go down. He went down many times during the game, but I didn’t see the incident. But I saw my players were surprised.”

Although Bafana failed to qualify for the next round of qualifiers, Broos believes that their experience will helping them when they attempt to qualify for the next Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Ivory Coast in 2023.

“Look, we came here to try to play a good game, to play a draw or maybe win. When you are so close, and you’re in the position we were in, we tried to do it,” he added.

“But again, we played against a very strong team, and the team with 10 times more experience than we have, at the moment. We are a new team, so you cannot blame South Africa not to be qualified for the next round. Not at all, but you can be sure that there is a team again in South Africa, and that will try to qualify for the next Africa Cup of Nations finals (in Ivory Coast in 2023).”