Finishing the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign undefeated is reason for Bafana Bafana to believe that they can do well in the competition which kicked off last night in Egypt.
Bafana finished second behind group winners Nigeria in the qualifiers, registering four victories and two draws on their way to booking a spot in the now 24-team competition. They missed out on the 2017 campaign and not many are considering them as favourites to go all the way and lift the title, but midfielder Dean Furman believes they cannot be underestimated after their good showing in the qualifiers.
Bafana booked their spot in the competition with a 2-1 victory over Libya in their final qualifier played in Tunisia in March.
Asked how far Bafana can go, Furman said: "We believe. It's a strong team and we are coming into the tournament with a lot of confidence, based on our qualification campaign where we went undefeated. Certainly our victory away to Nigeria, our performance against them at home and our crucial victory against Libya away gives us a lot to be confident about.
"The first target is to get out of the group. Thereafter we can…it's a knockout competition and anything is possible. We need to make sure we get out of the group. I don't think we are favourites and we are happy with where we are. We've got quality in this team. We have a lot of belief in our squad. We know that if we perform, we can achieve big things in this tournament."
Bafana play Ivory Coast in their opening Group D match on Monday.