Furman disappointed by defeat

Cape Town - South Africa captain Dean Furman admits the side are bitterly disappointed to have gone down to Algeria in their opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday.

Player ratings: Algeria v Bafana

Bafana Bafana looked well on their way to a memorable Group C victory over Africa's number-one ranked side as Thuso Phala opened the scoring shortly after half-time before Shakes Mashaba's men won a penalty.

However, Tokelo Rantie contrived to slam his spot-kick against the crossbar, signaling the beginning of the end for Bafana as Thulani Hlatshwayo went on to head past his own goalkeeper before Faouzi Ghoulam and Islam Slimani completed the turnaround for the Desert Foxes.

"We played against the top sidess over the last few years and we have to be able to compete, one of the things that maybe changed the game in their favour was when they moved to a 4-4-2," Furman said after this week's Mongomo loss.

"They went a little more direct, up to the two strikers up front, I think that's something we have to look at and maybe deal with a bit better, but I think overall we competed very well, some of the football we played was outstanding and as the coach said we were very disappointed not to come away with the win today."

When asked about this side's feelings regarding Rantie's penalty miss, Doncaster Rovers midfielder Furman said: "We won the penalty, TK (Rantie) picked up the ball, he's our striker, he was confident, we had 100 percent confidence in him, he went for the top corner, sadly it hit the top of the bar and went away, and I'm sure if the next penalty arises, TK is a confident player and I'm sure he'll be there with his hand up to take the next one.

"Listen, these things happen, we disappointed because that would have put us 2-0 up, into a very good position but it wasn't to be and we have to keep our heads up, we maintain that we played very well tonight, just disappointed we didn't react when they got their first goal back."