Yaya Sithole reacts to growing continental praise for Bafana

With Bafana on an unbeaten run stretching close to two years, they have been thrust into the spotlight as one of the tournament favourites.

Sithole said that status is built on the self-belief that exists within the group.

"We are not a group of individuals, we work well together as a team both on and off the field."

Following the 2-1 opening win against Angola on Monday night, Sithole did not want to get carried away ahead of facing Egypt four days later.

"We are just taking it one game at a time, and we aren't getting ahead of ourselves because we're always focused on the next match."

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Like many of his teammates, Sithole believes Bafana played in patches until a stern message from coach Hugo Broos at halftime.

"We knew coming into the game, that Angola were not going to make it easy, and we really needed these three points to start the tournament off on a positive note. 

"The coach gave us the instruction to press them at half time because we were giving them too much time on the ball in certain moments."

Broos will celebrate a personal record of 50 games in charge of Bafana against Egypt, but Sithole reveals they had already dedicated the Angola win to him.