30th January, 2024
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Bafana Bafana of South Africa have stunned the Atlas Lions of Morocco 2-0 to qualify for the quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Morocco, one of the tournament favourites, could not live up to expectations as they were not clinical in front of goal and squandered a penalty that could have kept them in the game.
After a goalless first half, South Africa took the lead in the 57th minute of the match. Evidence Makgopa connected with a pass inside the box and slammed home into the bottom right corner to make it 1-0.
Earlier, Teboho Mokoena was unlucky with a goal-bound effort from the edge of the box. A brilliant save by Bono stopped the ball from hitting the bottom left corner.
Noussair Mazraoui drove the ball low towards the goal from the edge of the penalty box and it went inside off the post but the referee ruled out the goal scored by Morocco.
In the 84th minute, Morocco were given a lifeline from the penalty spot, but Achraf Hakimi missed the penalty as he smashed the ball against the crossbar.
Five minutes into added time, Sofyan Amrabat was shown a red card after a terrible foul on a South African player.
Mokoena took the resultant free kick. He curled the ball into the top left corner with an absolutely phenomenal strike to make it 2-0 for South Africa.
Still on with added time, Romain Saiss connected with a cross and powered a header goalwards, but his effort went just over the bar.