South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira says Bafana Bafana do not fear France ahead of their final game.
Bafana Bafana boss eyes last-game result
South Africa manager Carlos Alberto Parreira says Bafana Bafana do not fear the French ahead of their final group game.
Parreira's side saw their hopes of progressing from Group A cut drastically as they were beaten 3-0 by Uruguay on Wednesday.
They now need a miracle to avoid becoming the first World Cup hosts to not get past the group stage, but France are also in dire straits.
Les Bleus were beaten 2-0 by Mexico leaving them level on points with South Africa, and both teams must win comfortably and rely on the other result in the group to go their way.
Parreira, who led Brazil to glory in 1994, insists South Africa have respect for France, but he says they do not fear them.
"We are in an extremely tough group and France will be very difficult to beat so we must play with a lot of spirit," he said.
"South Africa has good players and a good team and we did a good job to hold Mexico.
"It is not easy to contain the Mexicans as the French discovered on Thursday night.
"There is respect for the French, but we do not fear them. We want to play well and finish the competition in style by winning."
Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar is philosophical about South Africa's position in the group.
He added: "We are all happy and you can see the boys are laughing. Losing is part of life and we have to move on.
"It is normal for a professional footballer to be disappointed after losing a game, but you have to forget about it."
