The conclusion of the TotalEnergies AFCON finals draw on Thursday night has cleared the path that Bafana Bafana will be faced with in Cote d'Ivoire.
As the AFCON runs from January 13 to February 11, 2024 – Bafana will start in Group E with Tunisia, Mali, and Namibia.
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Bafana last played Tunisia (currently ranked 29) at the 2008 AFCON finals when they lost 3-1 in a Group D tie.
Two years earlier, The Carthage Eagles were also 2-0 at the same stage of the competition in Group C as Bafana also came stuck in the group stages.
Bafana won a third-place play-off contest against Tunisia on penalties at the 2000 AFCON finals jointly hosted by Ghana and Nigeria.
The famous win for Bafana against the North Africans was in the final of the 1996 AFCON final at FNB Stadium in a game played before a partisan full house.
Mark Williams struck a brace in that game.
The most recent meeting for Bafana against Mali (currently ranked 49) was a friendly international in October 2019 which finished 2-1 in favour of the hosts at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
Prior to that was a CHAN which finished in a stalemate while Mali was also the same opponent that bundled Bafana out on home soil in the quarterfinals of the 2013 AFCON finals.
The West Africans also won 2-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2002 AFCON finals.
Namibia – currently ranked 114 and a part of South Africa until 1990 – are a familiar opponent for Bafana Bafana.
The Brave Warriors came up against Bafana as recent as September in a friendly international that ended goalless.
Bafana were 1-0 winners at the 2019 AFCON after the two were thrown into the same group.
Plenty of the meetings between the two countries have been in the COSAFA Cup and friendly matches but Bafana came out tops again at the 1998 AFCON finals winning 4-1 in Group C on a day Benni McCarthy scored all four.
If Bafana win their group based at the Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly in the northern Cote d'Ivoire city of Korhogo, then they will have to face the runners-up in Group D which will be any of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, or Angola.
Then as Group E runners-up, Bafana will face the winners of Group F which has Morocco, DR Congo, Zambia, and Tanzania.
Lastly, if Bafana finish as one of the top four third placed teams in the six groups, then their last 16 route will mean they either play the winners of either Group A or D.
Group A has the host nation Cote d'Ivoire plus Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.
Worth noting is the fact that Bafana's group matches will be played near the Ivorian border with Mali which will give The Eagles the edge in terms of support.
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