Williams targets semi-final berth at AFCON 2023

Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams is hoping to go one better than 2019 by reaching the semi-finals at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Williams featured in four of South Africa’s five matches in Egypt five years ago as they made it to the quarter-finals before bowing out to Nigeria following a 2-1 defeat.

After failing to qualify for the next edition in Cameroon, Hugo Broos succeeded Molefi Ntseki at the helm and has guided the national team to the African showpiece in Ivory Coast.

Broos finally seems to have settled on a core group of players after initially struggling to consistently utilise the same squad for games, although Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Williams has been a mainstay in the team.

The 31-year-old believes they have made progress under Broos and hopes his own AFCON experiences will help the newcomers in the squad to feel more at ease during the tournament.

“Hopefully, we can go a step further than the previous one,” Williams told SAFA media. “We went out in the last eight so it’s possible we need to dream high as a country and need to be realistic as well.

“We haven’t been part of the tournament for a very long time. But I’m very happy to be part of this wonderful group we have now. We have done extremely good work over the last two years or so.

“We have learnt valuable lessons over the last few years. It’s just for myself or the players that were there for the previous AFCON to just share our experiences because it does get tough having to play every three to four days. It’s not easy.

“It’s tough playing high-quality games of consequence and mentally it can drain one. So, there is myself and other senior players who will share our experiences.”