South Africa head coach Hugo Broos believes his players are not intimidated by the threat of Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush ahead of their clash against Egypt on Friday.
Bafana Bafana began their campaign at the 2025 AFCON tournament with a 2-1 win over Angola last Monday and face the Pharaohs as they eye qualification to the knockout stages.
The Egyptians defeated Zimbabwe in their opening encounter by the same scoreline with Marmoush and Salah getting on the scoresheet.
However, Broos is confident in his players’ abilities to nullify the threat posed by the two English Premier League superstars.
“We are focused on no-one [in particular among the opposition players]. The most important thing is the team… We all know how good Salah is; we all know how good Marmoush is and we all know how good Trézéguet is and other players”, Broos said ahead of the clash.
“They are such a good team. Why should we focus on one player? We have to be prepared to beat the team rather than [seeing to it that] Salah doesn’t play good or Marmoush doesn’t play good. No; for us, it’s the team that’s important and we don’t really focus on one player.”
South Africa finished third at the 2023 edition in South Africa and will be hoping for a much improved performance in this edition.
Bafana Bafana require just a point in their final two matches to book their spot in the next round of the competition.
“First of all, there are some things we have to take into account, because we are playing against a very good team. That is true, but we will never adapt ourselves 100% to an opponent,” Broos added.
“We have our qualities. We have to try to show them tomorrow against that good team of Egypt.
“Surely, there are some precautions we have to take. It’s not a team like Zimbabwe; it’s not a team like Angola. This is a team a level higher, but in the other way, we don’t have to forget our qualities. We don’t have to forget the way we played in the past”, the Belgian continued.
“We have to put Egypt in difficult [situations] and you can only do that when you use your quality and the players you normally use.”
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