We don't fear them – Broos ahead of Nigeria clash

There is a sense of calm and belief on the face of Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos that they can finally reach the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final.

Bafana will battle with their old foes Nigeria in the first semifinal tonight at Stade Bouaké in Ivory Coast at 7pm.

The second semifinal will see hosts Ivory Coast meet DR Congo at 10pm. Broos, who guided unfancied Cameroon to glory in 2017, is two matches away from winning another final, this time with Bafana.

But they will have to negotiate their way against a Nigeria side who Bafana have not beaten in the Afcon matches.

The Belgian coach said they believe they can do it with Bafana.

"We are very happy and motivated that we play this semifinal of Afcon. I think for many people, it was unexpected, but we did it. That means SA is a good team," Broos told the media during the press conference on Tuesday.

"It is also more than 20 years ago that SA played in the semifinal... That means we have a lot of motivation that we want to play also in the final on Sunday.

"We are playing against a good team tomorrow [Wednesday], ranked number six in Africa. That means a lot and they have players who play abroad.

"It is a similar situation as last week against Morocco. They are also a very good team with players who are playing in Europe for big teams. So, I think for many people, Nigeria will be the favourite to win that game.

"But as you know in football, it is not always the favourites who win. We are confident and motivated to try that South Africa after more than 20 years are in the final."

Bafana and Nigeria come into this semifinal having not conceded in their last four matches. The Super Eagles have only conceded once in this tournament and that was during a 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea, while Bafana's two goals loss came against Mali.

Broos said he is confident that his players will do the job which will see them win and advance to the final.

"We don't fear them. We know they have good players. We will try to do something. We know that their defence is good, but those are things that were said about Morocco also and we won," he said.

"Those are statistics we have to take care of, but it doesn't make us fear the opponents. I always had confidence in the players, even when we were in SA where there were a lot of question marks about them."