Bafana Bafana's bid to win the Africa Cup of Nations after 27 years will be met with a stern challenge in Group E.

Following Thursday evening's draw in Abidjan, South Africa is in the same pool with 1972 losing finalists Mali, 2004 champions Tunisia and Cosafa rivals Namibia.

Navigating through this group appears a huge task for Bafana as two of their opponents are better ranked than them by Fifa.

Hugo Broos' men entered the draw in Pot three and that meant avoiding teams like DR Congo, Zambia, Guinea, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania.

They also managed to escape getting continental heavyweights like Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco and Cameroon.

Interestingly, Bafana and Namibia were in the same group at the 2019 Afcon finals, the last time South Africa participated at the tournament and the two sides engaged in a goalless international friendly match in September.

They reached the quarter-finals in 2019 where they were eliminated by Nigeria and this time around they would be hoping to go all the way to the final and lift the trophy they last won in 1996.

Meanwhile, Group C appears, on paper, as the group of death after Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea and the Gambia were pooled together.

Hosts Ivory Coast will face the challenge of Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau in Group A.

The Super Eagles go into this tournament boasting of having Napoli forward Victor Osimhen top-scoring during the Afcon qualifiers with 10 goals.

Egypt and Ghana as well as Lusophone rivals Cape Verde and Mozambique make up Group B.

In Group D, Algeria are bubbling from finishing the Afcon qualifiers with the highest number of points after racking in 16 and they now prepare to face Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Angola.

Morocco, DR Congo, Zambia and Tanzania do battle in Group F.