South Africa coach Vela Khumalo expressed pride in his players for executing his game-plan against Comoros to reach the 2025 COSAFA Cup final.

Bafana Bafana had struggled to get going in the regional tournament, scoring just two goals in their opening three matches, but still managed to qualify for the semi-finals after topping Group A.

Khumalo decided to change things up for the clash with the Coelacanths on Friday, playing just one striker up front as he looked to go full throttle from the get-go at the Free State Stadium.

The plan paid dividends, with Bafana Bafana taking the lead after just eight minutes when Idris Mohamed scored an own-goal before Boitumelo Radiopane doubled their advantage six minutes later.

Comoros pulled one back through Ibrahim Madi on 29 minutes, but Kamogelo Sebelebele sealed a convincing 3-1 win on the hour mark to book a date with Angola in the final on Sunday.

“We said we are going to play with the two tenths, we are going to play with one top man and we wanted an early goal so that we can settle them and open them,” Khumalo said.

“If you look at the teams that we have been playing against, they sit back and then they catch us on set-plays and start a situation. So in this case, what we said was that let’s have a quick goal, let’s unsettle them, let’s play the ball behind them, but let’s draw them in because they were the main markers.

“So we said let’s have the two tenths to draw them in and then we go punch up with the striker. It has worked for us and I’m happy that we scored goals that we needed this time around.

“Coming back, we said let’s set out traps because they want to build up from the back, which they are not used to doing. So we said, let’s set up a trap. But we needed to get another goal as soon as possible, just so that we can open them up, and we did exactly that.

“Getting three goals then, at least the gap was two. But we played a high-intensity game and I’m proud of the boys.”