{"id":1038,"date":"2025-12-12T09:32:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goalmzansi.com\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:55:27","slug":"warm-up-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goalmzansi.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/12\/warm-up-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Warm-up clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The South African Football Association (SAFA) has announced that Bafana Bafana will face Ghana in a friendly in preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fixture was announced by the association on Monday and will take place in Gauteng on Tuesday 16 December, though the venue is yet to be announced.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">South Africa will depart for Morocco the day after the fixture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Black Stars did not qualify for the continental tournament, finishing at the bottom of group F with three draws and three losses from six games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hosted in Morocco, AFCON begins on 21 December, with Bafana Bafana in action the next day against Angola at the Stade de Marrakech.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bafana Bafana will also face Egypt and neighbours Zimbabwe in group B.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hopes and expectations are set high for South Africa at the upcoming AFCON after the nation claimed third place at the last edition in C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire, with head coach Hugo Broos targeting a return to the podium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bafana Bafana are set to face Ghana in an AFCON warm-up fixture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[96,59],"class_list":["post-1038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","tag-2025-afcon","tag-bafana-bafana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Warm-up clash - GoalMzansi.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South African Football Association has announced that Bafana Bafana will face Ghana in a friendly in preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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