South African coach will show “no mercy” to Cameroon during CAN 2025 | Africa Cup of Nations News

Hugo Broos leads Cameroon to the 2017 CAN title but will have no room for sentimentality with his South African team.

South African coach Hugo Broos has promised to show “no mercy” to Cameroon when they face his former team on Sunday in the round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Broos will lead Bafana Bafana at the Al Medina Stadium in Rabat against the nation he led to an unexpected AFCON triumph in Gabon in 2017.

“Tomorrow’s match is surely a special match for me. If you win an AFCON with a country, then part of it stays in your heart, but tomorrow I can’t have pity for them because I am now the coach of South Africa and I want to win the match,” Belgian Broos told reporters on Saturday in the Moroccan capital.

“They are a very good team, a young team, and they have a good fighting spirit and a good mentality, which means if we want to beat them we will have to be at our best.”

Cameroon took seven points from a possible nine during the group stage in Morocco despite a chaotic preparation for the tournament.

Coach Marc Brys was sacked by football association president and Indomitable Lions legend Samuel Eto’o just weeks before the opening match, with David Pagou named as his replacement.

“I would have preferred to face Cameroon in the final. Maybe it’s a little too early,” Broos said.

“I was curious to see Cameroon with all the changes in their team, and I was surprised. They didn’t have much preparation time, but the coach did a good job, and for us it will be a difficult match.”

He added: “No mercy tomorrow! You can be sure of that. I have to win this match, that’s all that matters.”

South Africa unhappy with the configuration of the Moroccan CAN before the Cameroon test

Meanwhile, the 73-year-old expressed his anger at tournament organizers who forced his team to train at the Moroccan national team’s facilities, a 45-minute drive from their hotel in Rabat.

Whoever wins on Sunday will face Morocco in the quarter-finals, should the hosts eliminate Tanzania in their round of 16 tie.

“I don’t understand why CAF [the Confederation of African Football] allowed this. I have to say this because it makes me unhappy,” Broos complained.

Bafana Bafana, qualified for this year’s World Cup, hope to at least match their run to the semi-finals of the last Nations Cup in Ivory Coast in 2024.

But their coach admits that could prove a tall order given the amount of quality left in the competition.

“When we came here we had the ambition to do at least as well as two years ago, but I said this tournament would be much more difficult.

“During the last CAN, many big teams were eliminated very early, but this time, they are all there, which means that getting to the final, or even the semi-final, will be much more difficult, but our ambition remains intact.”