South Sudan coach Nicolas Dupuis believes South Africa are now among the top five teams on the continent following their impressive results in recent years.
South Africa are unbeaten since January and ensured their good record remained intact when they thrashed South Sudan 3-0 in their final 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Tuesday.
Having struggled to assemble a squad for the match, with 17 players travelling to South Africa, Dupuis admits the levels are too different while he is impressed by what Hugo Broos’ men have achieved, ranking them among the top teams in Africa.
“I think South Africa is now one of the five-six best teams in Africa. Sudan is not the same. We are going to play without any professional players, only local players,” said Dupuis.
Can Bafana Bafana sustain the impressive run?
“But my players are good. We are in good shape and we have trained a lot of times. Maybe in October and November I trained 30 times with them. So, the level has improved.
“But between South Africa and South Sudan is not the same, but in football anything is possible.”
Dupuis’ men struggled at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town with South Africa running riots thanks to goals from Iqraam Rayners, Patrick Maswanganyi and Teboho Mokoena.
South Africa last lost over 90 minutes in their opening match at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in January, when they were beaten 2-0 by Mali, before they recovered to go on and finish an impressive third.
