South Africa U-23 national football team coach David Notoane said on Sunday that his team will fight to beat Egypt in the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations semifinals on Tuesday to book a place in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

"We will prepare to fight for a win in that game," the South Africa coach was quoted as saying on South Africa FA's official website.

South Africa have booked their place in the semifinals of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations after they placed second in the Group B ranking with five points following a draw with Nigeria on Friday. Meanwhile, Egypt achieved the full mark of nine points to snatch the top place in Group A, setting up a semifinal clash with South Africa.

The tournament is taking place in Egypt from 8 to 22 November, with the top three qualifying for Tokyo 2020.

"I am happy with how the boys played in the [Nigeria] match,” Notoane said.

"We knew that we only needed a win or a draw in order for us to go through to the next round and I am glad that we were able achieve that. Ideally, I would have loved to face Egypt in the final, however, the gods of football decided otherwise."

Notoane promised that his players could repeat the achievement of the senior team against Egypt last June when the Bafana Bafana knocked out the Pharaohs in the last 16 of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

"There are a lot of emotions from both sides going into this match," Notoane said.

"Our senior men’s team knocked out the Pharaohs in the very same tournament setup a few months ago. We can only draw inspiration from their performance and try to emulate what Bafana Bafana did and push to achieve our ambition of reaching this year’s final," the South Africa coach added.

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