South Africa coach Hugo Broos believes Bafana Bafana should have carried the day had they scored their penalty missed by Percy Tau in their Africa Cup of Nations opener against Mali on Tuesday.

After dominating the early proceedings, Bafana Bafana got the chance to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty in the 19th minute after a VAR review but Tau blew the chance by blazing his effort over the bar.

The Eagles then scored through Sekou Koita and Lassine Sinayoko to earn the win in Korhogo. Speaking after the disappointing result, the 2017 tournament winner with Cameroon said the missed penalty and the physicality that the Malians came within the second half contributed to the loss.

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“The performance of South Africa was good, and I think if we scored the penalty, we would have been good. They were more physical than the first half. This was the major difference. We lost a lot of balls and mostly because the physical conditioning of Mali was better than us. So this is the difference and this is where Mali was able to change the game, not at the football playing level,” said Broos as quoted by CAFOnline.

“The coach of Mali saw what he had to do, and they were stronger on duels in the second half and we couldn’t play our game anymore. We lost the ball where we shouldn’t have lost it but then again, I think the performance was good but just not good enough.”

Bafana will next Namibia, who secured a historic 1-0 victory over Tunisia in the earlier kick-off at the Stade Amadou Gon Coulibaly in Korhogo on Sunday.