Bafana told weakness to work on in AFCON Last 16 or risk elimination

South Africa are among the teams that have advanced to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, Mali, Egypt, Tanzania, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Mozambique are the other nations in the Last 16 of the biennial competition.

Teboho Mokoena has been among the players who have been key to the Hugo broos-led team.

However, the expereinced versatile midfielder is concerned with the display by the 1996 champions who have conceded four goals in their three Group B games. They haven’t kept a clean sheet.

Bafana Bafana have to improve

The Mamelodi Sundowns player has now challenged his teammates to rise for the occasion in the next phase since that is the only way they can make it to the latter stages of the competition.

“We are happy as a team to go to the next round, but I think the real tournament starts now so we definitely have to improve. We have conceded so many goals already and we must improve that,” Mokoena told the media.

“We got nervous when they scored the second one, and then we scored, and then they were committing numbers up front and I think we were panicking a little bit, and we should’ve been calmer on the ball because when we’re in control we play so much better,” he added.

Bafana Bafana will play either Ivory Coast or Cameroon in the Last 16.