Broos Up Against Cameroon in AFCON

South Africa’s Africa Cup of Nations hopes face a huge test on Sunday when they meet Cameroon in the last 16, with coach Hugo Broos coming up against a team he knows very well.

The match will be played at Al Medina Stadium in Rabat, Morocco. It pits a South African side focused on steady progress against a Cameroonian team that has had to deal with off-field problems but has remained strong on the pitch.

Cameroon arrived at the tournament after a turbulent build-up. Just weeks before the competition, the football federation president, Samuel Eto’o, replaced head coach Marc Brys with David Pagou. Brys’ last game was a World Cup play-off loss to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which ended Cameroon’s World Cup hopes.

Despite that setback, Cameroon responded well at the Cup of Nations, finishing the group stage unbeaten with two wins and a draw.

Broos knows how dangerous Cameroon can be in tough situations. He coached them to the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2017, beating Egypt in the final.

“If you told someone before the tournament we would get to the final, they would have laughed,” Broos said at the time. “But this for us was a big motivation.”

Now in charge of South Africa, Broos has helped the team qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 2010 and finish third at the last Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

South Africa’s group-stage matches were tight. They needed late goals to beat Angola and Zimbabwe and lost narrowly to Egypt. Broos said his team must do better against Cameroon.

Broos says they keep “falling asleep after taking leads” and will expect an improvement against Cameroon.

Broos has also spoken about the tournament atmosphere, saying it feels different from previous editions.

“I don’t feel the same vibe as what I felt in Ivory Coast and in Gabon,” he said.

“I don’t know how to explain it but in Ivory Coast and Gabon, every second of the tournament you felt that you were in a tournament.

“When we went with the bus to train, people were waving flags, and here you feel nothing.

“There is no vibe. There is no typical AFCON vibe. I don’t feel it here.”

South Africa and Cameroon have met only once before at the Africa Cup of Nations. That was in 1996, when South Africa won 3–0 on their way to lifting the trophy.

The winner of Sunday’s match will move on to face hosts Morocco in the quarter-finals if Morocco defeats Tanzania.