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Bafana could be in 2015 group of death

RELAXED : Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba with his charges during a training session at People's Park in Durban on Tuesday Photo: Veli Nhlapo
RELAXED : Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba with his charges during a training session at People's Park in Durban on Tuesday Photo: Veli Nhlapo

SOUTH Africa will learn their Africa Cup of Nations fate at the draw for the finals in Equatorial Guinea on December 3, but face the potential of a horror group involving three other African giants.

Bafana Bafana will be in Pot 3 for the draw based on the Confederation of African Football's seeding system that takes into account performance at the last three Nations Cup finals between 2010 and 2013.

It serves up the potential for a four-team first-round group that could contain Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and South Africa, among many more equally frightening possibilities.

The three sides that Shakes Mashaba knows he will not have to face in the first round are Cape Verde, Gabon and DR Congo, who are also in Pot 3 along with Bafana.

But they will come up against one of Ghana, Zambia, Burkina Faso or hosts Equatorial Guinea, with the latter perhaps the most preferred option there.

None of the teams in Pot 2 look appetising - along with Ivory Coast there is the top-ranked Algerians, their fellow north African side Tunisia and Mali, who have finished third at the last two Nations Cup finals and knocked Bafana out on home soil in 2013.

Pot 4 contains some top names too in the form of Cameroon, a rejuvenated Senegal, Guinea and Congo, perhaps the one side in the competition who should hold little fear for Bafana.

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