…See Quarterfinal Pairings.
QUARTER FINAL PAIRINGS:
1. Nigeria vs Angola on Friday at 6 pm at Boigny Stadium
2. DR Congo vs Guinea on Friday at 9 pm at Olympic Stadium.
3. Mali vs Ivory Coast on Saturday at 6 pm at Stade Bouke.
4. Cape Verde vs South Africa on Saturday at 9 pm in Yamoussoukro.
The Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Tuesday at the Stade Pedro put up a superlative performance to send home the Atlas Lions of Morocco ranked no1 in Africa against South Africa ranked 12 by two impressive goals to nothing.
South Africa fought the Lions desperately from the opening whistle confusing and frustrating the only African team to have ever reached the world cup semifinals.
Zwane set the South Africans in motion getting Orlando Pirates’ Evidence Makgopa who took advantage of a sloppy defending of Morocco to score the opener in the 57th minute.
South Africa was unlucky in 82nd minute when a ball hit the hands of her defender and the Moroccans typical of North African style of play rushed the Ref to pressurize him for a penalty. There was serious confusion that attracted yellow cards on both sides over the protests. The penalty was granted by VAR and in the 85th minute after some mellow drama, Morocco’s most reliable player, Achraf Hakimi sent the ball into the skies negating all the prayers offered in the Moslem way before the kick right on the pitch. The Hakimi shot actually hit the cross bar to go out as no goal.
Then came the humiliating moment when frustration gripped Morocco’s last man on defence, Sofyan Awrabat who roughly tackled a South African and got a straight red card in 90+4 minute. Awrabat had a yellow card before which the Ref thought a new yellow means Red but VAR ruled it a straight red because he brought down a goal bound attacker.
The resultant free kick some 25 meters away taken by Mamelodi Sundown’s Teboho Mokoena sailed fantastically into the net as it beat Goalkeeper Bono of Morocco hands down in the 90+5 minute causing the Moroccan fans to weep and leave the stadium.
The South African victory means all North African teams have been sent home. South Africa moves to face Cape Verde in the quarters on Saturday.
Six matches were played between Africa’s number one team Morocco and South Africa. Morocco won twice, South Africa once and there were three draws. In an AFCON match played on 5th February 2004 it was 1-1; again another AFCON match played 28th January 2013; a friendly match played 12th October 2013 ended at 1-1; then three AFCON matches followed, Morocco won on 2nd July 2019; Morocco again won 2-1 on 10th June 2023 and on 17th June 2023 South Africa won 2-1.
South Africa had 4 points, scored 4 goals and conceded 2 goals in group E that had Mali as leaders, Namibia and Tunisia that rocked the bottom of the group. She lost to Mali 0-2; disciplined the Brave Warriors of Namibia 4-0 and played goalless with Tunisia.
Morocco had beaten Tanzania 3-0; drew 1-1 with DR Congo and narrowly piped Zambia by a lone goal. She chalked 7 points scored 5 goals and conceded only one goal.
South Africa ranked 66 in the world is making her 12th appearance at AFCON. In 1996 South Africa hosted and won 2-0 over Tunisia; she won Silver in 1998 at Burkina Faso losing to Egypt 0-2; South Africa won the Bronze at the Nigeria/Ghana hosting of 2000 beating Tunisia on penalties 4-3 after 2-2 at full time and South Africa hosted in 2013 failing to win a medal.
Morocco ranked 13 in the world, leading the African teams has had 20 appearances at AFCON but were only 1976 champions. They were champions at Ethiopia lifting the cup from Guinea in a 1-1 duel; In Lagos Nigeria 1980 Morocco beat Egypt 2-0 to claim the Bronze; at Egypt 86, Ivory Coast beat Morocco 3-2 to claim the Bronze; Morocco hosted in 1988 but lost the Bronze to Algeria 4-3 on penalties after 1-1 at Extra Time and at Tunisia 2004 Tunisia piped Morocco 2-1 in the final.
On Friday 2nd February, Nigeria will open the quarterfinal series against Angola at Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium at 6pm and at 9pm it will be DR Congo versus Guinea at the Olympic Stadium.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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