The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations will reach an early climax on Friday when South Africa take on Egypt in a top-of-the-table Group B match in Agadir, Morocco.<\/p>\n
Bafana Bafana are among the early favourites, Egypt are seven-time Afcon champions. The head-to-head record heavily favours Bafana, but the world rankings tell another story.<\/p>\n
The Pharaohs are ranked 35th in the world, while South Africa occupy 61st place.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a match-up for the football connoisseur.<\/p>\n
Bafana Bafana coach, Hugo Broos, has been a coach for 37 years. But spending Christmas away from his family is not something he\u2019s used to.<\/p>\n
The 73-year-old Belgian spent the day marshalling his troops ahead of their crucial 2025 Africa Cup of Nations Group B match against Egypt in Agadir, Morocco, on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, I am happy to play seven-time African champions Egypt who have good players like Mo Salah. It will not be easy but I am looking forward to this match,\u201d says Broos.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a top-of-the-table clash with the winner guaranteed a place in the Round of 16. And that\u2019s where Broos and the players\u2019 focus is this Festive Season.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re champing at the bit to take on seven-time Afcon Champions Egypt, knowing that they have nothing to fear, having beaten the Pharaohs eight times in 14 matches, with two draws.<\/p>\n
Bafana Bafana forward Lyle Foster say they look to continue to collect maximum points.<\/p>\n
Egypt will have a slight advantage after playing their opening match of the tournament in Agadir.<\/p>\n
They scored a 2-1 win over \u00a0Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Bafana had to travel by bus from Marrakesh to Agadir on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Broos says travelling between the two cities will not be an excuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is part of the tournament. I am not complaining. The players have to be professional about it. We will not have an excuse after travelling here by bus. This was just a two-hour trip. It is not that bad. The same in our last game against Zimbabwe will be the case. The only unfortunate part is all the logistics involved. But I will not use that as an excuse,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s only win against Egypt in an Afcon tournament was in 2019, and still lingers in the minds of many Egyptian soccer fans.<\/p>\n
Thembinkosi Lorch came off the bench to silence the partisan local crowd at the Cairo International Stadium.<\/p>\n
Although Bafana Bafana dominate the head-to-head record against Egypt, the Pharoahs have won the more important encounters.<\/p>\n
In three previous Afcon meetings, Egypt won two and South Africa one.<\/p>\n
The Pharaohs beat Bafana in their opening group match in 1996, and also in the 1998 final in Bukina Faso.<\/p>\n
But they start with a clean slate in Agadir on Friday.<\/p>\n
–SABC–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14530,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-21686","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Bafana Bafana are among the early favourites, Egypt are seven-time Afcon champions.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Bafana Bafana are among the early favourites, Egypt are seven-time Afcon champions.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25261,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21686\/revisions\/25261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}