PRETORIA - Bafana Bafana, has a big task ahead of them this afternoon as they have to beat Malawi to qualify for the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) 2025 finals.

Bafana Bafana will welcome Malawi in a Caf CHAN Qualifier return match at the Loftus stadium in Pretoria after suffering a 1-0 defeat in the first leg, played at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe last week.

Although the teams head coach Molefi Ntseki’s troops dominated the first leg game, they could not find an important away goal, and as a result, they suffered a hummer blow when Zeliat Nkhoma netted the only goal of the game to give Malawi a 1-0 win.

Bafana Bafana knows that they will have to score twice without a reply for them to qualify for the group stage. In making sure that this happens, Ntseki has beefed up his squad by recalling Neo Maema and Victor Letsoalo into the team. He also secured Ndumulelo Maphangule, Siyanda Msani, Simon Ramabu, and Kamogelo Sebelebele.

The winner on aggregate will qualify for the CHAN finals, which are scheduled for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania in August.

Ntseki is hoping to have answers on Sunday and qualify for the group stage. “Players understand the expectations and demands of this game.

“We are fully aware that Malawi will come here, try to defend their 1-0 goal, and hope to catch us on counterattacks. Defensively, we have to be solid. Offensively, we have to be robust and aggressive. Because if we give away a goal, we will have to score three goals, and we don’t want that,” said Ntseki.