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Cape Town - Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki says that it will be difficult to come out on top in their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying group.
South Africa are in Group C alongside Ghana, Sudan and either Mauritius or Sao Tome e Principe when the qualifiers kick-off in November.
In an exclusive interview with Sport24, Ntseki believes that Ghana are in a rebuilding phase while the lack of information on Sudan could be tricky for Bafana Bafana.
"I think our group is a difficult one but, at the same time, we are giving ourselves an opportunity," he said.
"We will do proper profiling of Ghana and Sudan before we look into who the players are we want to bring in and which system we are going to deploy against those two opponents.
"We know that Ghana are more like us in the sense that they are in a building phase.
"They have not been doing well as a national team but Ghana is a football country and we know that they can always be very strong and give you a good game.
"As of now, we might not know much about Sudan but by the time we play them, we would have done our analysis and profiling of them as a team."
However, despite the challenging task that lies ahead, Ntseki is confident that Bafana will end up qualifying for the tournament in Cameroon.
"We are looking for positive results in whatever we are doing and we are saying we have to do well and we will do well and qualify for Cameroon 2021," he said.
"If we do well in Cameroon, it will give us a very positive platform for us to do well in the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and competition.
"If you look at the current situation of the South African football landscape, we have a very good group of players who can easily be phased in and some of the players in the current Bafana Bafana squad might be phased out due to age, loss of form or injury.
"We will have a better-balanced team going into the qualifiers. For me, if we do well we will qualify for AFCON 2021 and then we should use it to prepare and cement our qualification for the World Cup.
"Doing well at the 2022 World Cup should come from our performances at AFCON in two years' time."
The next official scheduled matches will be against Ghana (November 11) and Sudan (November 19) in the AFCON qualifiers.
The venues and kick-off times are yet to be announced.
- Compiled by Tashreeq Vardien
