Al Ahly’s star Percy Tau revealed he is hurt by missing a penalty in South Africa’s defeat to Mali in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
South Africa fell to a 2-0 defeat against Mali in the opening round of group E in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday night.
The Bafana Bafana had a golden chance to control the game and take an early lead when Egyptian referee Mohamed Adel awarded them a penalty, but Percy Tau blazed his kick over the crossbar in an abysmal effort.
Mali went on to score twice in the second half through captain Hamari Traore and Lassine Sinayoko, which was enough to down South Africa and leave Percy Tau ‘hurt’.
“This is not the start we wanted, if we scored a goal, I mean if we scored the penalty it could have changed the game, but we missed it so we prolonged the game [from controlling it],” Tau told iDiski Times.
“It hurts, at the moment it still hurts [missing that penalty] I’ll try… I’ll try and get it out of [my system] because we still have two games to play for and I’ll try and get the results.
“Yes [I’m confident we can progress] even though it hurts right now.”
That was Percy Tau’s third penalty miss in his career from six attempts as the first-half finished in a 0-0 draw.