Bafana Bafana superstar Percy Tau says that while they believe they can do something special at the African Cup of Nations, they aren’t overconfident heading into tonight’s opener against Mali.
South Africa kick off their campaign at 10pm tonight at the Amadou Gon Coulibaly Stadium against a team that twice KO’d them at Afcon in years gone by.
The first was in 2002 when Mali beat Bafana 2-0 in the quarterfinal and the second in 2013 when the Eagles won on penalties at the same stage after it finished 1-1 after regulation time.
But under Belgian coach Hugo Broos, Tau believes something special is brewing.
He says: “We are looking forward to the games, we are opening against a difficult side and then we still have Tunisia and Namibia [in Group E], so we are looking forward to all those matches.
“We do believe in ourselves, but we are not overconfident, we are grounded.
“But that does not take away from the fact that we think we can do something special, we want to do something special.
“That’s the bottom line.”
Bafana will face a Mali side that includes the likes of captain Hamari Traore, who plays for Real Sociedad in La Liga and Spurs midfielder Yves Bissouma as well as a vrag players playing in Europe.
But coach Broos adds: “We are looking forward to play. We are aware that we have a tough opponent in Mali.
“On the other side we believe in our chances and I hope we can achieve our best level so that we can win the game.
“It’s very important in a tournament like this that we can start with a victory.
In today’s other matches, Burkina Faso face Mauritania in Group D at 4pm, with Bafana’s group rivals Namibia and Tunisia locking horns at 7pm.