Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was pleased with his side’s Africa Cup of Nations draw that will see them take on Tunisia, Mali and Namibia in the finals in Ivory Coast taking place from 13 January to 11 February.
The top two teams as well as the four best runners-up across the six groups advance to the round of 16 and Broos is confident his side will progress.
“I am not unhappy when you see the teams (who have qualified),” Broos said in a video released by Safa. “With Mali, for sure we have a very big team. Tunisia also. But I prefer to have Tunisia than Senegal or Ivory Coast. So that is good. Then Namibia we know, so I think if we can achieve our best level then we can go through the group stages.
“When you are in pot 3, you are always going to have two big teams in your group. But when you see Tunisia, they are certainly a big team, but it is a little bit less than Morocco or Senegal, so from that side, it is a good thing.
“Mali will also be tough, they are good two teams. So we will see, but I am rather happy with the draw, it could be worse.”
Broos admits the last few weeks have not been ideal with injuries curtailing preparations, the latest to captain Ronwen Williams, but he hopes to have several players back for the start of the World Cup qualifiers next month.
INJURIES DISRUPTING PREPARATIONS
“The preparation for the moment is disturbed by injuries, but we still have two months (before the finals) so I don’t panic for the moment, certainly not,” he said. “I am hoping we can recuperate all those players who are injured, first of all for the World Cup qualifiers (that start in November) and then for Afcon.
“Let’s hope the injuries stop now and we can really start to prepare the team.”
Bafana play Eswatini on Friday at FNB Stadium and then head to the Ivory Coast to meet the Cup of Nations hosts in a friendly in Abidjan on Tuesday, perfect preparation for their continental finals campaign.
“For us, it is a very good game, we will play one of the best teams in Africa who are hosts for Afcon, and they will go very far in the competition,” he said. “We will play in front of a full stadium and I think it is several years ago that South Africa played in front of 30 000-40 000 people, and that will be the case on Tuesday.
“So it will be a good experience because when you play Afcon, you play always in a full stadium. I am very happy to have this friendly.”