Mali captain Hamari Traore has hailed the quality of the South Africa national team players and tipped them to advance to knockout stages of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Traore opened the scoring on the hour mark in the 2-0 win over Bafana Bafana on Tuesday evening at the Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly as they saw out a dominant first-half display and turned the second in the second 45 minutes.
As Traore warned his troops pre-match, he echoed his sentiments of the Bafana technical ability and feels they can bounce back and advance out of Group W which also contains Tunisia and Namibia – with the Brave Warriors stunning the North Africans with a 1-0 win.
“You know what I said [before in the press conference], South Africa is a very good team, they have top players, you saw in the first half, they were in a good mood and created a lot of difficulties for us,” Traore said in the mixed zone.
“But we stayed focused and communicated with each other in the second half, with good pressing and we got a lot [of possession] and we got the goals, but this South Africa team will get out this group – they played good and I hope they get far.”
Traore says Namibia’s win over the third-ranked team in Africa doesn’t change the context of the group as each opponent has its own challenges.
“The game is not the same, we have to play against Tunisia, it’s another team, another contest but we will be prepared, stay focused, and work together, we have 27 players, and the coach will pick 11 to start and those who come off from the bench will come finish the game off,” he explained.
“But we’re happy to win [South Africa] for our people, friends and family – now we go rest and then focus on the next game Inshallah.”
Mali will now face Tunisia in their next game at the same venue on Saturday at 22h00.
