Molefi Ntseki has named his starting XI for this afternoon’s CHAN qualifier against Egypt in Bloemfontein.
The two countries will meet in these additional qualifiers for this year’s tournament to be hosted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Two teams must still book their places at the finals, and this second qualification campaign was confirmed at the draw last month. The winner between Bafana and Egypt will take on the winner between Comoros and Malawi.
While Bafana assistant Helman Mkhalele was originally pencilled in to lead the team, Ntseki was ‘called up’ last week instead after Mkhalele was recused to focus on the World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin later this month.
Sundowns midfielder Neo Maema will captain the team, that has been hastily assembled due to the match not falling on FIFA dates, which means that clubs do not have to release players.
The second leg will be played in Egypt on the 6th of March.
Here’s how they line-up:
Bafana Bafana XI: Xulu, Mashego, Mfolozi, Mngonyama, Baloyi, Webber, Luthuli, Maema, Saleng, Matodzi, Jansen
Subs: Gumede, Smith, Sithebe, Teto, Sam, Seabi, McCarthy
Egypt XI: Kassem, Semida, Diaeldin, Elgohary, Abouelenein, Abdellatif, Gadelrab, Ali, Hassan, Abdelaal, Ibrahim
Subs: Sayed, Elsambaskani, M.Abdalla, Aref, Tadros, Aly, R.Abdalla
