Zungu banking on Portugal experience

BONGANI Zungu believes he can display himself as a more complete player from his experiences since becoming Vitoria Guimaraes’s key midfielder when Bafana Bafana meet Nigeria on Saturday.

Having established himself not just in Guimaraes’s first team‚ but as the midfielder feed his teammates with the ball to make the team tick‚ big midfielder Zungu could be a key player for Bafana in their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Uyo.

“I’m happy to be back. It’s been a while. Everyone knows I’ve been struggling with injury‚” Zungu said after Bafana’s training session at FNB Stadium yesterday.

“And it’s good to be back. The preparations are going well. The coach [Stuart Baxter] is a very good coach. The sessions are nice and we’re looking forward to Nigeria.

“If I get a chance I’ll make sure I grab it with both hands. It’s very important for the nation that we have good competition [in the squad]. We also have good midfielders who play locally.

“And ja‚ it’s exciting. I’m looking forward to taking my experience from Portugal and bringing it here.

And also help the younger guys like Percy [Tau]‚ just to give them that motivation that maybe one day they can go and play abroad.”

Zungu joined Vitoria in June 2016 as a free agent having not played for several weeks for Mamelodi Sundowns with a shin injury.

It took time for him to fully rehabilitate‚ and missing the offseason delayed his breakthrough into the first team.

Once Zungu did‚ though‚ he did not look back‚ with 18 league games‚ 15 of which were starts‚ and 16 of which were in 2017‚ becoming the target of clubs – notably Benfica.

The central midfielder’s game will have naturally developed in the closed spaces of European football.

“I believe I’m quicker with my decision-making when I have the ball. And also it’s the environment in Europe‚” he said.

“The stadiums are always full and you gain confidence. So the confidence is up.”

Zungu scored an equaliser in the Portuguese cup final against Benfica 10 days ago‚ though Guimaraes slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

“I’m proud of myself goal,” Zungu said.

“Unfortunately we lost. But‚ yeah‚ we gave a good fight‚ because they had beaten us 5-0 in a league match.

“It was a good game. A very intense game. I’m proud of myself but it would have been better if I got the goal as a winner.”— TMG bigger for the