Regragui Makes Bafana AFCON Claim And Hails Sundowns Star

Morocco head coach Walid Regragui believes Bafana Bafana have the potential to surprise at the Africa Cup of Nations and heaped praise on captain Ronwen Williams.

South Africa produced an impressive display on Saturday evening at the FNB Stadium to trump the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-finalists 2-1 and move top of Group K.

While Regragui missed some of his key players like Sofyan Amrabat and Sofiane Boufal and experimented with a new formation, he was left highly impressed by the level produced of Hugo Broos’ side.

“I know the qualify of the Bafana Bafana, I came here to make you happy, I said this is a very big team in Africa you know, but the reality is we played Cape Verde, we played South Africa,” Regragui said when asked about the level of Bafana before hailing Williams.

“The goalkeeper [Williams] played with confidence, if he lose the ball it’s not a problem [for him], when you play like that it becomes easy for many opponents, I like the competition, when you lose one ball and we can score, it’s [a] different [challenge].

“He doesn’t play with this concern but he’s a good technical player, very good fans, and I think in the African Cup, they can make a surprise with this spirit, but I’m very happy to see [and play] against this team because South Africa has worked a lot on their football and have good players, good quality with Mamelodi Sundowns, your league is good.]

“You will rise in the future, Inshallah, but I can’t say more about competition, as competition is competition, in the World Cup, we win Spain, we win Portugal but when we play Cape Verde it’s different, it depends on who you play.

“But I think my team learnt a lot, it’s good for my team, maybe not for Bafana Bafana.”

The Atlas Lions will face Liberia in September for their final Group K game, which could seal top spot and seeding for the continental showpiece in Ivory Coast in January.