Mothobi Mvala of South Africa celebrates victory during 2023 Africa Cup of Nations match between Morocco and South Africa at Laurent Pokou Stadium in San Pedro, Cote dIvoire on 30 January 2024. Picture: Weam Mostafa, BackpagePix
Malibongwe Mdletshe
BAFANA Bafana strongman Mothobi Mvala has deep belief that the combined CAF competition experience of Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch FC players will help the national side against a Mohamed Salah-led Egypt in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Bafana, the 2023 Afcon bronze medallists, were drawn in Group B against seven-time Afcon champions Egypt and Cosafa neighbours Angola and Zimbabwe.
Pirates and Sundowns are both through to the quarter-finals of the Caf Champions League and Stellenbosch are at the same stage in the Caf Confederation Cup.
The last time Bafana met Egypt, they won 1-0 knocking the Pharaohs out of their home Afcon in the last 16.
Mvala played a big role in the Hugo Broos-coached side in Ivory Coast last year. This week he returned from an injury for Sundowns and will be expected to do the same in Morocco in December.
“It is an interesting draw. We will be playing against Egypt, Zimbabwe and Angola. It is interesting because in the last Afcon we did very well and obviously the expectations are very high. And us as the players, we all know what we have to do,” said Mvala.
“With Egypt, what’s interesting is that we have a lot of teams in South Africa that are competing in the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederations Cup. When you add the different experiences of the players, it is going to help us very much in the Afcon.
“I believe we have a strong squad that can take the nation to the next level or to make the nation proud.”
The 1996 Afcon champions, Bafana, are in a buoyant mode since reaching the semifinals in Ivory Coast a year ago. On the other hand, the Liverpool forward, Salah continued to fail to inspire his nation to greater heights as they exited yet again in the last 16.
Although their record against Bafana is not in their favour, Angola get the label of dark horses of the group after reaching the quarterfinals in Ivory Coast.
Bafana are undefeated against Angola in four previous finals fixtures.
Bafana’s fixtures are set like this; they open their Group B campaign against Angola in Marrakech on December 22, meet the Egyptians in Agadir on December 26 and finish off against next door neighbours Zimbabwe in Marrakech on December 29.
Bafana and Zimbabwe have never met at the Afcon finals but they will be clashing for the fifth time with Angola after previous meetings in 1996, 1998, 2008 and 2013.
It is almost the same with the Pharaohs as they will be meeting them for the fourth time in the finals. The teams also met in the 1998 final in Burkina Faso, and in a group meeting in 1996.
Even though the Egypt clash will be the much anticipated one, Mvala feels the trickier ones are those against Cosafa neighbours Angola and the Warriors.
“Yes yes yes! I think (for Bafana to be drawn against Cosafa neighbours in the Afcon) adds a bit of flavour because those are the countries that we are a bit familiar with,” said Mvala.
“Those games (against Angola and Zimbabwe) are going to be very interesting."
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