Hugo Broos reacts to Bafana Bafana’s Afcon draw - 'Egypt favourites, but we have a great opportunity to qualify'

On Monday evening in Rabat, Bafana Bafana found out who they will face in the 35th edition of the Afcon as they were grouped with Egypt, Angola and neighbours Zimbabwe in Group B.

The man at the helm of the senior national team spoke to the Safa media team about the draw.

"When I look at our opponents for Afcon, I think that Egypt is the favourite to win the group. They didn’t make a very good last Afcon. They were not, or they didn’t perform like everybody expected. They were very soon out of the tournament. But I think in the last year, year and a half, they built again a very good team. They did very well in the qualifiers. So that will be the team to beat for the first place,” said Broos on Safa Media.

“And then we have Zimbabwe again. This is the fourth time that we are playing against Zimbabwe. We played against Zimbabwe for the 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. And we have, or we have Zimbabwe in the qualifiers for the next World Cup. And we have, again, Zimbabwe now in the Afcon. Zimbabwe is a neighbour of South Africa, and it’s always a very difficult game for us. At the other side, 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 an Afcon," he added.

“And then we have Angola. Angola is, for me, the team I don’t know, really, very good. So it’ll be very important to do a good analysis of our opponent, Angola, and to be well prepared to play that game. So, in general, I think we can be satisfied. It is not a very easy group. On the other side, I think we have a great opportunity to qualify for the next round. And then, as you know, in Afcon, after the group stages, everything is possible. So we will do everything to do better than the last Afcon,” concluded the Belgian.

Facing teams from the SADC region like Angola and Zimbabwe could work in Broos' favour, as these sides have played against each other in the Cosafa Cup, fostering familiarity.

Additionally, Bafana Bafana will face Zimbabwe in World Cup qualifiers just before Afcon in December, offering more insight into their opponents.

While Egypt remains a significant threat, Bafana Bafana will take confidence from their last Afcon win over Egypt during the tournament in Ivory Coast.

With the Afcon draw complete, Broos' immediate focus shifts to the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in March, where Bafana Bafana will take on Benin and Lesotho.