Brave Warriors coach Bobby Samaria is optimistic the lessons gained from Thursday’s one-all draw against Congo will be enough to carry them past Togo today in a 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg.

The match is the last in the Group H qualifiers.

Samaria is confident his charges are in the right shape physically and mentally to give Togo all sorts of problems.

“Togo is high on morale after getting a draw against Senegal, and they will come all out for a win against us – more so, after losing to us in the reverse fixture at their home in September. But we are ready for them and our own game plan is to finish off well,” said the Namibian gaffer.

He said it is important to see how the boys will perform, but he is very optimistic from what he saw in the match against Congo. In that match, Peter Shalulile opened the scoring in the 43rd minute before Congo’s Guy Mbenza equalised nine minutes after the interval.

“We will be in a position to stand our own. The Congo match was a thrilling encounter with action in both boxes. They gave us some challenges with their speed and overload on their left wing – but luckily for us, we had Ryan Nyambe on our right, who, in my opinion, did very well to defuse the situation.” 

“We, at times, struggled to close them down but I think we did well in our offensive and combination play. We were again not clinical with the chances that came our way. In the end, we took the point and we now move on to the next one on Monday (today).”

Togo and Namibia are currently second and third on the log, respectively with five points each, while Congo sits bottom with three points. Senegal tops Group H with 13 points.

Meanwhile, with 12 goals in 42 appearances, Shalulile is currently second in the nation’s all-time goal-scoring chart, and will be eyeing Rudolph Bester’s record of 13. – ohembapu@nepc.com.na