The Afcon Draw Unveils the Group Broos Was Apprehensive About

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has expressed his satisfaction with the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations draw, which took place on Monday. The tournament, which is set to take place in Ivory Coast in January, saw South Africa placed in Group E alongside Tunisia, Mali and Namibia.

“Obviously I’m not really unhappy when you see the teams that are represented, I think with Mali, for sure we have a very big team, on the other side Tunisia also but I prefer to have Tunisia than Senegal or Cote d’Ivoire,” Broos said in a statement to the media.

“So, that’s also good and then Namibia, we know. I think we can achieve our best level that we can go (to progress out) of the group stages,” he added.

The Belgian coach had no particular preference prior to the draw, as South Africa had dropped from pot 2 to pot 3 in the seeding bowls, meaning that anything could have happened. He was pleased to have avoided the host nation, Cote d’Ivoire.

“When you’re in pot 3 you don’t have to hope much, because you’ll have two big teams in your group but when you see with Tunisia, it’s certainly a big team also but it’s a little bit less than Morocco or Senegal or the hosts Cote d’Ivoire,” he explained.

“So from that side we’re doing a good thing. Mali the same, it’s not really the big top (nations), but again it will be tough, two good teams, to be directly qualified, you have to be good. So we will see, I’m rather happy with the draw, it could (have been) worse,” he continued.

Bafana will play AFCON hosts Cote d’Ivoire next Tuesday in Abidjan and Broos said that it will be a good preparation for the tournament to play in front of big crowds. He is also pleased that South Africa did not draw the host nation in their group.

“It’s a good game for us, we will be confronted with one of the best teams in Africa, when you are the host of AFCON, you always go far in the competition. And secondly we’ll play in a full stadium, I think it’s several years ago that South Africa played in front of 30 000, 40 000 people. That will be the case next Tuesday against Cote d’Ivoire, that will be a good experience for us also, because when you play AFCON, you play in full stadiums. I’m happy with the friendly next Tuesday and also very happy that we’re not in the group of Cote d’Ivoire,” he concluded.