Lerato Mbhiza
South Africa’s national football team needs to do better if they want to reach the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire.
This follows the team’s beating with a 2-nil score at the hands of Mali on Tuesday night in Korhogo and its sinking to the bottom of the log in Group E.
The 1996 AFCON champions did well during the first half but missed a penalty in the 9th minute when Percy Tau failed to convert it into a goal.
After this miss, Mali came back in full force and scored its first goal in the 60the minute and then followed six minutes later by a second goal.
South Africa have two matches remaining in their group. They will play with Namibia this coming Sunday evening.
Namibia caused one of the major upsets of the tournament so far, beating former champions Tunisia, 1-0 in the other match played in Korhogo last night.
Bafana’s last group match is against the Tunisians next Wednesday.
This will be Mali’s 13th AFCON, and they have never lost their opening match of the tournament. Mali top the group on 3 points, the same number of points as Namibia, but they have a superior goal difference.
INSIDE POLITICS