Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane has praised the young players for showing confidence in their victory over Egypt.

South Africa capped off the international break with a 1-0 victory over the Egyptians in an international friendly.

Puso Dithejane scored the only goal of the game in the 50th minute to secure the win at the Cairo International Stadium on Sunday.

Mosimane was particularly pleased with the youngsters’ willingness to take on the challenge, insisting they must be given opportunities to prove themselves at international level.

“Yeah, it was a little difficult, you saw in the first five minutes that we could not find our feet. It’s normal because we brought in the younger ones. We changed the whole team,” Mosimane said.

“It takes a little time to gel and to come in, but as the game progressed, we gained confidence.

“But what I like is that they’re not afraid to play and we need to give them a chance. I let them swim with the sharks, threw them in the deep end.

“Yeah, they swam, hey? Yeah, so it’s good to see Shandre [Campbell), Puso, and all the young ones. [Lebone] Seema, big game and he played. We had to put [Khulumani] Ndamane in there… [Thabang] Matuludi has been there, you know.

“It was also good to bring back [Fawaaz] Basadien because he was with the national team before. Yeah, we were a little bit thin in the midfield [due to several injuries to key personnel in the middle].

“I had to play [Olwethu] Makhanya in the midfield at the end. But it’s part of football. You’ve got to do what you have to do,” he concluded.