Relentless Morocco Breaks Bafana Bafana Hearts With Late Goal in Africa Cup of Nations Qualifier

• Morocco left it late to secure victory against South Africa in Group K of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers
• Lyle Foster gave South Africa an early lead and Ronwen Williams kept South Africa in front during the first half
• Youssef En-Nesyri levelled matters for Morocco and Ayoub El Kaabi scored a later goal to deny Bafana a draw

Morocco scored a late goal to deny South Africa a hard-earned point in the Group K opener of the AFCON qualifiers.

Morocco started the game much stronger and dominated much of the first half.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi and Ilias Chair combined well on the right flank to put in dangerous crosses into the box every so often.

Bafana were reduced to playing on the break in the opening few minutes and that strategy paid off in the eight-minute.

Debutant, Sphephelo Sithole served up a beautiful through ball to Lyle Foster and the Westerlo man did well to brush away Hakimi and fire the ball into the back of the net.

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The goal came against the run of play and stunned the Moroccan side. The Atlas Lions tried to hit back immediately and would have taken a lead into the halftime break if it had not been for Ronwen Williams.

The SuperSport United keeper and Bafana captain pulled off some beautiful saves to deny Tarik Tissoudali and Youssef En-Nesyri.

When Williams wasn’t getting behind the ball, his defence came to the rescue as Thibang Phete produced a last-ditch interception to thwart a Hakimi cross soon after.

Bafana were then lucky to not have conceded a freak goal.

Williams tried to kick the ball out of his box but Tissoudali stuck out a leg to deflect it toward a Moroccan player who scored. A foul was given against the Moroccans though.

Phete was again in the thick of things before halftime as he helped stop another attack.

Williams then produced a blinder in time added on of the first half as he denied Hakimi once again.

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The second half started with the Atlas Lions pushing forward again. The home side then felt hard done as they were denied a penalty when the ball hit Taariq Fielies on the hand in the box. The referee saw nothing wrong and pointed to the corner flag. Morocco finally got a reward for their constant pressure when they scored in the 51st minute. Wolverhampton Wanderers player, Romain Saïss, headed the ball down into the box for En-Nesyri to head home from close range.

With the match level, Bafana started to find their way more into the game and had more possession of the ball.

The rest of the second half was played at a slower tempo than the first half but both sides had chances to kill the game off. Yusuf Maart and Percy Tau both squandered Bafana’s best chances while Williams was once again called into action to save Bafana’s blushes. Sadly even his heroic efforts weren’t enough. Ayoub El Kaabi broke Bafana hearts when he smashed home a volley in the 87th minute of the game to claim victory.

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Bongokuhle Hlongwane underlines importance of Bafana beating Morocco, Percy Tau chases South African record

Bafana are hours away from getting their AFCON qualifiers underway and striker Bongokuhle Hlongwane is ready for the clash against Morocco.

The South African forward, who plays for Minnesota United FC in Major League Soccer, is confident that the team understands the importance of the game.

Hlongwane will be leading the South African line along with the likes of Khanyisa Mayo, Evidence Makgopa, Lyle Foster, Thembinkosi Lorch and Percy Tau.

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Morocco will host South Africa in a headline clash in Rabat in Group K, with Liberia watching on from home. This is because Zimbabwe was disqualified from this phase of the competition due to political interference in the country's football federation.

According to statisticians 11v11, there is not much to separate the sides since they first met at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso. In six previous meetings, Bafana Bafana has won two matches to the Atlas Lions' one, with three draws.

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In the quarterfinal of AFCON 1998, Bafana defeated Morocco 2-1 as reported by KickOff. Then in the 2002 edition in the group stages, South Africa overwhelmed the North Africans 3-1 in Mali.