Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos will have reason to believe that another miraculous path to the final could be on the way based on what is happening at the tournament in Cote d’Ivoire.
Bafana come up against Morocco on Tuesday night in a match being played at the Stade Laurent Pokou in San Pedro.
On paper, the Atlas Lions will be favoured to win considering that they are the top ranked country on the continent and have players from PSG, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen, Sevilla, West Ham United and PSV Eindhoven.
At the opposite end Bafana is ranked 12th on the continent and dominated by players from Mamelodi Sundowns.
However, based on what has happened at this AFCON finals tournament, rankings and where players in a squad are based count for nothing.
Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Cameroon are already out and will be joined by either Mali/Burkina Faso in the list of the top 10 failing to reach the quarterfinals this year.
The only surviving top five ranked nation on the continent – Morocco, could also become the seventh of the top 10 countries on the continent that fail to reach the last eight and Bafana will have thrown the knockout punch.
With the top ranked nations dropping out of the tournament with such frequency, Bafana have every reason to believe they will be behind the latest upset.
Angola, who are down in position 117 on the FIFA rankings and 28th in CAF, are through to the last eight along with three other countries ranked outside the top 10 on the continent in DR Congo, Cape Verde, and Guinea.
Bafana is in the same class as DR Congo, Cape Verde, Guinea on the rankings.
Should Bafana Bafana get past Morocco, then they will face Cape Verde in the quarterfinals after which either Nigeria or Angola awaits in the semi-finals.
On the other end, any of Mali/Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, or Guinea will be in the final.
Another positive for Bafana against Morocco is that they hold the edge in games that they have played at the AFCON finals.
Bafana’s record against the North Africans at the AFCON finals reads two wins, two draws, and one defeat in five meetings.
It was a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals of the 1998 final, then a 3-1 win in Group B at the 2002 tournament followed by a 1-1 draw in Group D in 2004, and then 2-2 in Group A in 2013.
The most recent meeting was a Group D tie in 2019 which The Atlas Lions won 1-0 but this time Broos is in charge and knows how to go about winning the AFCON having done so in 2017.
Come on Bafana Bafana!
