South Africa joined Egypt to progress to the last-16 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as Group B runners-up after a 2-1 win over Zimbabwe at the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Monday afternoon.
South Africa started with real purpose and appeared ready to take the game to Zimbabwe, carving them open at will in the opening minutes of the game, one way traffic in the opening ten minutes, with Tshepang Moremi’s deflected effort opening the scoring.
An effort from Oswin Appollis earlier on nearly crept over Washington Arubi’s line too, and the Warriors appeared to be struggling to navigate around the slick, quick passing game of Bafana.
However, after weathering the storm, they levelled matters in spectacular fashion through Tawanda Maswanhise, who was one of the names left out in recent games and questioned heavily media local media.
The Motherwell forward picked the ball up outside the area ghosted past Sphephelo Sithole, put Mbekezeli Mbokazi on the ground before firing home a powerful strike past captain Ronwen Williams.
And the Zimbabwe side were full of confidence threafter, carving the more chances before the half-time whistle, but on the balance of play, fair to have been 1-1 at the break.
Needing three points for potential qualification, while South Africa needed at least one point; it promised to be an attacking second half with Angola and Egypt level at 0-0 at the time.
And it took just five minutes before Lyle Foster capitalised on the Warriors high-line to slot the ball past an onrushing Arubi and restore Bafana’s lead.
From there despite Maswanhise hitting the post, it was proving to be rather comfortable for Hugo Broos’ side as they slowed the tempo of the game down dramatically and limited the clear cut chances seen in the opening half.
Six points sees Bafana finish second in the group, while Egypt, unbeaten, with two wins and the goalless draw against Angola, top the standings with seven points while the Cosafa duo Angola and Zimbabwe are eliminated.