
Hugo Broos believes that Bafana Bafana is in good standing to make it to the knockout rounds after learning of his opponents in the group stages of the upcoming Afcon in Morocco.
South Africa has been grouped with five-time African champions Egypt, Angola and Zimbabwe in Group B in the draw that was held in Morocco on Monday, 27 January.
“So, in general, I think we can be satisfied. It is not a very easy group. On the other hand, I think we have a great opportunity to qualify for the next round of the AFCON. And then as you know, in the AFCON, after the group stages, anything is possible. So, we will do everything to do better than the last AFCON,” said Broos.
The 72-year-old led Bafana to a third-place finish in the last instalment of the competition that was held in Cote d’Ivoire early last year.
He identified Egypt as the strongest team in the group despite their recent struggles in the tournament.
“When I look at our opponents for AFCON, I think that Egypt is the favourite to win the group. They didn’t do very well at the last AFCON, they didn’t perform like everybody expected and they were very soon out of the tournament. But I think in the last year and a half they have built a very good team. They did very well in the qualifiers, so they will be the team to beat for first place,” the coach continued.
Bafana is in the same group as neighbours Zimbabwe in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and is set to lock horns in the Afcon group stages. The recent three meetings favour Bafana who has won two and played one draw.
“Then we have Zimbabwe again. This is the fourth time that we play against Zimbabwe. We played against Zimbabwe in the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, we played against Zimbabwe for the qualification of the last AFCON, but they were suspended, so there was no game between them and us.
“We are playing against Zimbabwe in the qualifiers for the next World Cup. We have them again now in the next AFCON. Zimbabwe is a neighbour of South Africa and it’s always a very difficult game for us. On the other hand, in all the games we played already against Zimbabwe, we played one draw, and we won three times.
“So, winning against Zimbabwe is very possible in the AFCON. And then we have Angola. Angola is for me a team I don’t know really very well. So, it will be very important to do a good analysis of our opponent Angola, and to be well prepared to play that game.” Broos concluded.