After weeks in camp and preparing for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, Bafana Bafana are now gearing up for their opening match of the continental tournament against Angola at the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Monday, 22 December 2025.
The South African senior men’s national team has been in Morocco for a few days now and they are counting the hours ahead of the opening match. Coach Hugo Broos said the team is looking forward to opening their account against Angola tomorrow night.
“We are very happy that we can start this tournament and play our first game tomorrow. We all know that we will face a tough opponent (Angola), but I think that my team is ready,” he said. “It is very important we win that first game. I think you make a big step for qualification for later or to survive the group stages. So again, we will try to win it and to put ourselves in a good position for the second game against Egypt.”
Captain Ronwen Williams said the team has continued to improve with each passing day in camp, especially after the arrival of the outstanding players – the European-based Lyle Foster, Shandre Campbell and Yaya Sithole.
“Obviously we know that the preparations have been very strange where the European-based players only joined (the camp) a bit later. But once we were complete, you could see the mood was much better, training was much better, the team spirit, everything just got much better as everyone arrived in camp,” Williams said.
“The last few days have been good, training has been solid, and you can see that the boys know they are playing at the AFCON. You can see that the quality at training has improved as well. So overall, the last few days have been much better. We’ve looked good as a team, and we know how important it is to get the tournament off to a positive start. We can’t wait to get started tomorrow and we’re looking forward to giving a good account of ourselves.”
The kick-off at the Grand Stade de Marrakech is at 18h00 local time.
SOURCED FROM THE SAFA WEBSITE.
