Bafana created numerous clear chances early in the first stanza that could have settled the nerves but Lebogang Phiri eventually broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.
"Congratulations to the boys, [for] the effort they have to put, especially if you look at it in the second-half, the legs were gone and we can understand why; because of the travelling," Ntseki explained to SABC.
"They put in a very god fight, trying on transitions moments to get a goal and missing chances. The chances we missed in the second-half took a lot of energy out of our players but I think defensively we did well," he went on.
"We were compact, we did not allow them to play the ball behind our defence, because what we have seen with them they depend more on switch play to get behind the defence, so we dealt well with that situation."
The former South Africa junior national team coach was not too bothered about the chances missed by his troops and instead looked at the positive side.
"Firstly, compliment because you can't create chances if there's no movement, if there is no commitment, the belief to get to the box and create those chances. We compliment. All that was important for us was composure when we were about too finish," he said.
"If you look at the chances we missed in the first ten minutes of the game we could have just tapped the ball in, we couldn't, so at half-time we said, "no, no, we're creating chances let's be composed, let's pick the spot and get goals".
"What actually derailed our play [in the second-half] was [Thapelo] Morena picking up a knee injury, [Thulani] Serero a bit of injury and remember Dean Furman played 90 minutes in Ghana, Sifiso Hlanti also 90 minutes and also the captain [Thulani Hlatshwayo], part of the work had to be done especially on the sides, that's why we had to reserve Sifiso from going forward and stay at the back and Dean Furman we also said "you don't have to go [forward], just give us balance", so I think under the circumstances we did well, we got the three points we were looking for."