A second successive victory in their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign, will put Bafana Bafana in the pound seats. South Africa face Eritrea in a Group D encounter in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday evening.
The lowly ranked East Africans have never qualified for an AFCON tournament and Bafana should fancy their chances. But Pitso Mosimane will be without the services of the injured Teboho Mokoena and Aubrey Modiba.
Midfielder Mokoena and defender Modiba are key members of the Bafana Bafana team and their unavailability for the match against Eritrea is a blow.
Both sustained injuries in the hard-fought victory against Guinea in Soweto on Saturday and are also doubtful for the international friendly against Egypt on Sunday.
Bafana Bafana are back in the top 50 on the FIFA world rankings for the first time in 15 years, but according to Mosimane, they will not be complacent against a team currently ranked 184th in the world.
“The most important thing is to give respect to the opponents because they are in the group, they qualified to be in the group, that’s more important. We saw them against eSwatini and they managed to win to qualify, so we respect them for that. They’ve got their striker who scores all the time the guy is even playing here in Egypt he’s a top scorer he’s fast and he shoots from any angle left or right, he’s deadly on set pieces and penalties also one important guy very tricky we have to look after.”
The first round of the AFCON qualifiers has produced a number of shock results and Mosimane says no team can be taken lightly.
“They’ve been good, they gave Kenya a scare also, Kenya had to come and equalise at the end in Kenya, I mean that’s a big one that really shows that you have to respect because Kenya is a good team. But they were upfront early goal and the same guy scores, so we have to be very careful of that guy. We have to make sure that we look after those important issues we just mentioned. But we don’t forget about ourselves that we are a good team we played well last time yes, we missed a few chances, and we need also a little bit of improvement so like any team that needs improvement. But we stay positive, we played proper, we respected the country and that’s what I expect the boys to play to show respect to the national team, to the flag.”
Bafana Bafana Captain Ronwen Williams says their aim is to qualify for next year’s AFCON tournament as soon as possible.
“We know it’s an AFCON qualifier and we treat with respect that it deserves and we are looking forward to the game. We want to try and get as many points as possible as quickly as possible for many reasons so that we can settle down as a team, so that we can keep the momentum going. Just for everyone to get a chance to play as well, but I think the most important thing is just to remove the anxiety and just to play freely as well. First and foremost is to get the points we’ve prepared well for tomorrow’s game.”
After Wednesday’s match, Bafana Bafana will resume their AFCON qualifying campaign in November.
