Bathusi Aubaas admitted that Bafana Bafana were naturally disappointed to make an early exit from AFCON 2025, but they learned “valuable lessons”.
Bafana Bafana midfielder Bathusi Aubaas admitted they were naturally disappointed to make an early exit from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations last weekend, but “some valuable lessons” were learned.
Hugo Broos’ side, who finished third in the 2023 edition, only made it as far as the round of 16 on this occasion after they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Cameroon on January 4.
South Africa were far from their best in Morocco and it showed once more against the Indomitable Lions after Lyle Foster, Relebohile Mofokeng and Samukele Kabini all wasted good chances to open the scoring inside the first 10 minutes of the match.
Aubaas conceded that the five-time African champions were more clinical on the day, but stressed that the players gave their all despite not being able to replicate their run in Ivory Coast two years ago.
“It was a learning curve; we picked up some valuable lessons… we created many chances [against Cameroon], but we didn’t convert them,” he said after Broos’ squad touched down at OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday.
“But they got just two chances and they converted both of them. In future, we have to convert our chances if we want to go further.
“I think the boys fought really hard, but this is obviously not what we wanted as a country. I think we can do better next time.
“We are very disappointed about being knocked out in the round of 16. We wanted to go further, but it was not meant to be.”
