Cape Town - Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde Islands stand between Bafana Bafana and a place in the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.
Bafana Bafana were handed a reasonably favourable draw in Cairo on Friday for the final stage of the qualifiers, which start in October and end in November 2017.
Coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba’s team avoided the “group of death” in Group B, where Zambia will come up against giants such as the No 1-ranked team in Africa, Algeria, as well as former finalists Cameroon and Nigeria.
Ghana and Egypt will also fight it out for top spot in Group E, with only the group winners advancing to Russia 2018.
While Senegal are ranked fourth and Cape Verde seventh on the continent, Bafana Bafana will fancy their chances of topping Group D – provided Mashaba can get his selections right going forward.
In a disastrous qualifying campaign for the 2017 African Cup of Nations in Gabon, Mashaba’s outfit crashed out of Group M to finish in third place. Cameroon won the group with 11 points, followed by lowly Mauritania on seven, South Africa on six and Gambia with two.
Bafana’s downfall was two draws against Cameroon (0-0 and 2-2), as well as a 0-0 draw against Gambia in their first match in Durban last June. Their only defeat was a 3-1 scoreline against Mauritania away, and will complete their programme against the same team on September 2 at home.
But Mashaba believes his team turned things around with their 4-0 drubbing of Gambia in Bakau earlier this month.
The veteran coach, though, will have to utilise some of the Olympic-bound Under-23 stars such as Keagan Dolly and the currently injured Phakamani Mahlambi going forward if Bafana are to make it to Russia.
Mashaba also failed to utilise Ajax Cape Town striker Prince Nxumalo despite calling him up to the squad, even though Nxumalo was the leading South African marksman in the Absa Premiership with 13 goals in the last campaign, one behind Zambian Collins Mbesuma.
Mashaba said on the Bafana Twitter account that “there are no excuses on Group D WC draw. We could not have asked for a kinder draw. I’m happy, but that does not mean it is going to be easy.”
African 2018 World Cup Qualifying Groups
Group A: Tunisia, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea
Group B: Zambia, Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria
Group C: Gabon, Mali, Ivory Coast, Morocco
Group D: Senegal, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde
Group E: Ghana, Egypt, Republic of the Congo, Uganda
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@IndyCapeSport
Independent Media