FOOTBALL – COACH Hugo Broos said South Africa do not fear Egypt’s Premier League contingent, Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush, ahead of their Group B clash in the Africa Cup of Nations today.
Manchester City forward Marmoush scored the equalizer against Zimbabwe, before a late strike from Liverpool’s Salah secured a 2-1 win in their opening game in Morocco on Monday.
South Africa beat Angola by the same score in their Group B opener thanks to Lyle Foster’s screamer.
South Africa’s Belgian coach said he will not use a special approach to contain Salah or Marmoush.
“We are focused on no one. The most important thing is the team,” Bross, who led Cameroon to the 2017 edition title over Egypt, told a Press conference yesterday.
“We all know how good Salah is, we all know how good Marmoush is and we all know how good Trezeguet is and other players. They are such a good team. Why should we focus on one player? We have to be prepared to beat the team.”
The last meeting between the two sides in AFCON ended in South Africa’s favor, after they beat the hosts of the 2019 edition 1-0 in the Round of 16.
“We have to put Egypt in difficult (situations) and you can only do that when you use your quality and the players you normally use,” added Broos.
Yesterday, the Africa Cup of Nations paused for Christmas, but it is a brief 24-hour break with two more rounds of group competition to be crammed into the next week.
The tournament in Morocco kicked off on Sunday, and the first four days of matches have run to form, with many of the favourites serving notice of their potential in their respective opening fixtures.
For the host nation, however, it was more relief than celebration when they in the opening game, having been.
Morocco has invested heavily in footballing infrastructure for the tournament, and with an eye on their co-hosting of the 2030 World Cup finals, there is an enormous burden of expectation on their team to deliver the Cup of Nations title in return.
Morocco are heavily fancied for home success, but they have a long history of flopping at the continental championship, having won the Cup of Nations once previously, some 50 years ago.
They will be back in action today, facing a much tougher opponent, Mali, in Rabat in their second Group A match,
There were impressive starts this week for and who are two of the favourites, and wins also for defending champions Ivory Coast and former winners Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Tunisia.
The group stage of the tournament will be completed on December 31, with the last-16 kicking off on January 3. The final is on January 18.
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