Bafana Bafana midfielder Teboho Mokoena says they will have to use their Africa Cup of Nations early exit in Morocco as a lessons ahead of the Fifa World Cup in June/July.
Bafana suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Cameroon on Sunday in the last 16 to bow out from the tournament.
Hugo Broos’s charges were determined to improved on their bronze medal finish in 2023, but delivered a below par performance in their four games they played.
Mokoena said the focus now is on the Fifa World Cup where they will have top do better. “We just needed luck today (Sunday), unfortunately [we didn’t have it],” Mokoena said. “No regrets. We are proud of ourselves. We look forward to the World Cup.
“We just needed luck. We couldn’t score our goals. We played a better game. We were the better team. We created more chances. It was unfortunate that we did not win.”
Bafana are in Group A alongside Mexico, South Korea and the European play-off team. They will open their campaign against Mexico on June 11.
How Bafana have performed at Afcon:
1996: Champions
1998: Runners-up
2000: Third-place
2002: Quarterfinals
2004, 2006, 2008 and 2015: Group stages
2013 and 2019: Quarterfinals
2023: Third-place
2025: Round of 16.
Sowetan
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