Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Roger de Sa warns South Africans against having too many expectations in the AFCON currently underway in Ivory Coast.
The former Egypt national team assistant coach and Orlando Pirates head coach says the AFCON is as tough as Bafana doubters are making it out to be.
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South Africa is currently in position 2 on the Group E table and a win against Tunisia will guarantee South Africa a place in the knockout stages.
"It's a good competition, I think it's been a fantastic AFCON," the 1996 AFCON winner tells KickOff.
"Yes, there's been a lot of upsets obviously, but I think the standard of everything has gone up, refereeing, playing and the balanced teams as well. The results have been difficult to predict, and the players have been good, the players have been committed. Especially, the lesser countries like Cape Verde and Mozambique, they've all played very well.
"Everybody has been pulling through, so it is a difficult tournament, there is no doubt about it, there is no weak team.
"Bafana Bafana they now have a realistic chance of making it to the next stage, make no mistake Tunisia they've got a good team, is not a team that's on top of their game right now but they are a pedigree team, they've done well in the past.
"Once you lose your first game then every game is going to be a cup final, Bafana they've won a cup final against Namibia, but now they've got another cup final against Tunisia," the coach said.
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"But as for Bafana winning the trophy, that's asking for a bit too much after not being in the tournament for such a long time. We've got to be realistic. I think if we get to the second round then we've done our job.
"We can't just expect a national team to arrive in a tournament and win it. It happened in 1996 but it's not going to happen again in a very, very long time," he added.
The clash against Tunisa gets underway at 19:00 this evening.
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