Bafana Bafana stormed into the quarter-finals of AFCON 2023 with a stunning 2-0 over tournament favourites Morocco at Stade de San Pedro on Tuesday evening.
South Africa were given the lead after 57 minutes after Evidence Makgopa’s cool finish before a stunner of a free kick from Teboho Mokoena late on sealed the tie for Hugo Broos’ men. The two goals bookended a poor penalty miss from PSG superstar Achraf Hakimi in what was a pulsating AFCON round of 16 tie.
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Teboho Mokoena extends Bafana's lead!
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Bafana will next face Cape Verde in the city of Yamoussokro in the quarter-finals. Morocco, meanwhile, will be left to lick their wounds after an underwhelming AFCON campaign. This certainly looks a far cry from the side that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar.
Instead, they’re added to the scrap heap of top African sides who have fallen out of AFCON so far. The likes of Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt have also been ousted before the quarter-finals in one of the most open editions of AFCON in recent memory.
Makgopa’s smartly-taken goal came after a defence-splitting pass from the evergreen Themba Zwane. The Orlando Pirates striker looked marginally offside in real time but VAR quashed the appeals of the Moroccans. The goal would stand and Bafana would need to hunker down and weather the North African storm.
The Atlas Lions were presented with a glorious opportunity to level matters late on after VAR awarded them a penalty after Ayoub el Kaabi’s shot hit the arm of Mothobi Mvala. Up stepped Morocco’s golden boy Hakimi whose penalty crashed into the bar and out of play.
Morocco were reduced to 10 men after Manchester United midfielder Sofyan Amrabat was given his marching orders for a foul on Mokoena who was advancing into the box. Mokoena would step up to take the resulting free-kick, which he dispatched with aplomb from a tight angle.
The full set of quarter-finals as follows:
- Nigeria v Angola – Friday 2 February (19:00)
- DR Congo v Guinea – Friday 2 February (22:00)
- Mali v Ivory Coast – Saturday 3 February (19:00)
- Cape Verde v South Africa – Saturday 3 February (22:00)
