Bafana Bafana got off to a disastrous start to the FIFA series in Algeria, drawing 1-1 with 164th-ranked nation Andorra.

Ricardo Fernandez put Andorra into a shock lead in the 6th minute, forcing the South Africans to change gears as they battled their way back to 1-1 thanks to an Elias Mokwana equaliser in the 25th minute.

South Africa went on to dominate large portions of the match as they created a number of opportunities and could have punished Andorra goalkeeper Antoni Gomes on another day, but they eventually had to settle for a share of the spoils.

Bafana coach Hugo Broos fielded an experimental side, giving debuts to Thapelo Xoki, Mlondi Mbanjwa, Patrick Maswanganyi and goal-scorer Mokwana. In addition, only two players – Thapelo Morena (22 caps) and Nkosinathi Sibisi (10 caps) – had more than single-figure caps under their belt. While the result is frustrating for Bafana fans, it served a valuable purpose of offering experience to younger players and to give the coach a chance to try out different combinations.

“Even with that little present we gave to Andorra today we could’ve won the game,” Broos told SAFA media.

“I’m satisfied – not with the result, I tried to win today — but I’m satisfied with the performance of this team – a totally new team and I’m certainly satisfied about some players. They’ve given me much satisfaction and I think they are guys we can count on by the end of the year.”

Broos admitted that the match highlighted the fact that Bafana are missing a top goal scorer.

“I think we showed again, shall I say the problem of South African football, we don’t really have that scorer, the guy with one chance scores a goal. If you see the six or seven chances we’ve had today and we only scored once – this is only a little thing I’m not satisfied with. There were a few guys who satisfied me a lot,” he added.

Bafana’s next match is against Algeria on Tuesday, 26 March, at 11pm at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.