Hugo Broos has attributed South Africa’s TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 opening loss to Mali to the missed penalty in the first half as well as the physicality of the Eagles.

South Africa were humbled to a 2-0 defeat after a positive start in the first half that lacked the all-important finishing touch.

Speaking after disappointing result, the 2017 tournament winner with Cameroon said the missed penalty by Percy Tau and the physicality that the Malians came with in the second half contributed to the loss.

“The performance of South Africa was good, and I think if we scored the penalty, we would have been good. They were more physical than the first half. This was the major difference. We lost a lot of balls and mostly because of the physical conditioning of Mali was better than us. So this is the difference and this is where Mali was able to change the game, not at the football playing level” said Broos.

“The coach of Mali saw what he had to do, and they were stronger on duels in the second half and we couldn’t play our game anymore. We lost the ball where we shouldn’t have lost it but then again, I think the performance was good but just not good enough” concluded a dejected Broos.

Up next for the South Africans is a Southern African tie with their high in confidence neighbors, Namibia who secured a historic 1-0 victory over Tunisia in the earlier kick off.

The Sunday clash will take place at the at the Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly in Korhogo at 20h00 local time.