South Africa coach Pitso Mosimane said Egypt is still a strong candidate to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

"We know what they are capable of . They are not three-time African champions for nothing," he said in an interview with  BBC Sport..

"It won't be easy because they hammered Australia 3-0 in their last match and that shows they are returning to form," added Mosimane who will host the Pharaohs in their next qualifying fixture in March.

The North Africans are bottom of Group G in the race for the next finals in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, after a shocking start  by their own high standards.

They were held to a draw at home by lowly Sierra Leone before losing to Niger, much to the shock of the football world.

African football's governing body will decide in January on the outcome of the bids but with just two countries left in the running it will only have to allocate one tournament to each.

The next Nations Cup competition in 2012,  co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, includes forty-six African nations,drawn into eleven groups, each containing four teams. The top team in each group qualifies, as does the runner-up of Group K (which contains five teams) and the two best runners-up from the other groups (which each contain four teams).