Bafana Bafana have discovered who their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) opponents will be, after the draw for the group stages for the 34th edition of the continental tournament was conducted in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Thursday night.
Hugo Broos’ charges, who are ranked 13th on the continent in the FIFA rankings, have been pitted in a tricky Group E and will have to battle it out with Tunisia who are ranked 3rd, Mali (8th) and neighbours Namibia(27th) for the tournament.
“Obviously I am not unhappy when you see the teams in our group, we avoided some of the traditional big teams. I think in Mali and Tunisia we have big teams, but I prefer to have Tunisia and Mali than to have Senegal or Ivory Coast. We know Namibia and I think we can achieve our best level and get through to the group stages”, Broos reacted to SAFA’s media.
Bafana last competed at Afcon in 2019 where they were knocked out of the competition by Nigeria in the quarter-final stages.
The 24 participating teams were divided into six groups consisting of four teams each, with hosts Ivory Coast automatically placed in Group A.
The top two from each group qualify for the last 16, including the four best third-placed teams.
The most prestigious soccer competition in Africa is set to kick-off on 13 January until 11 February 2024.
AFCON 2023 groups:
- Group A: Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau
- Group B: Egypt, Ghana, Cape Verde, Mozambique
- Group C: Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, Gambia
- Group D: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Angola
- Group E: Tunisia, Mali, South Africa, Namibia
- Group F: Morocco, DR Congo, Zambia, Tanzania
