South Africa have booked a place in the last eight of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations after defeating Morocco 2-0 in the Round of 16 at Laurent Pokou Stadium in San Pedro on Tuesday.
Despite being favourites to not only win today’s clash but the tournament itself, the Atlas Lions were unable to put the ball in the net against a South African team whose tactics appeared to be to defend in numbers and rely on few counterattacking opportunities to score.
South Africa gained more possession as the second half of the match rolled on, leading to their breakthrough. Evidence Makgopa managed to score a goal in the 55th minute.
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The Atlas Lions’ biggest scoring opportunity fell to Achraf Hakimi after South Africa’s Mothobi Mvala handled the ball in the penalty area. But the PSG right-back hit the ball too hard and it bounced on the crossbar, missing the target.
As the Atlas Lions chased a last-gasp equalizer to send the game to extra time, South Africa extinguished any hopes of a Moroccan comeback with a second goal that sucked the air out of Morocco’s AFCON aspirations.
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COMMENTS
At this point in time Nigeria is the highest team ranked in the last 8. The trophy is ours to loose because with total discipline we should have no problem whipping all this team from Angola to anyone in the Final.
And the fraudulent CAF that included 4 Moroccans in the team of the group how market for them?
Have you forgotten how many Nigerian players were in the group best 11 in 2021 AFCON? What happened to us in the R16 that time?
We are going to win this cup , by His Grace. Amen
Looking at some clear box 18 infringements that were totally overlooked and no VAR involvement in both the South Africa/Morocco and CIV) Senegal matches, I’m having a feeling some of these matches are rigged.
The host country and the President’s home country are getting unfair favours. At least at the knockout stages.
The penalty for morroco was a VAR checked
Mauritania knocked out Algeria. Mozambique knocked out Ghana.
Dr Congo knocked out Egypt. South Africa knocked out Morocco.
This is the Africa Cup Of Nations!!! SuperEagles all the way, but we focus on Angola.
@Ayphillydegreat,It means we could also get knocked out,so the outcome of our next game/Games is still uncertain;it isn’t a given that we’ll win!Though super eagles remains the biggest threat amongst the team left.
However,I’m feeling the ouster of Morocco and Senegal happened for a reason.
It may just be Nigeria’s year.
Angola is a very difficult opponent.Let us just focus on our next game.If we play our next 3 matches like three finals strength to strength I do not see any team remaining stopping our ambitions.
Meanwhile,Osimhen could still win the top scorers award hopefully,he will start a goal rain from the quarter finals!
Good luck super eagles!!
@Greenturf. Since the Equitorial Guinea game I think the SuperEagles have finally realized that every game is a final from there on. We will never underrate Angola since they took a WorldCup slot from us before. It will be a fascinating match to watch as Angola also have some talents albeit not at the level of the SuperEagles. We must beat them with all seriousness. This is our cup to lose as we have a SuperEagles that have depth in abundance.
Morocco lost Ziyeck and Boufal they collapsed, without Mane Senagal is nothing. Without Haller Ivory Coast is toothless. The SuperEagles lost Ndidi, Awoniy, (question)Boniface and Sadiq (questionable) yet we are still a force because we have Osimhen IJAYA OLUSOSUN (APOY) and Lookman the prince of Bergamo in our team. Don’t forget we still have Kelechi and Moffi on the bench.
For me I want to focus on Angola for now then we can discuss what is and what if later on. By the way @Greenturf are you finally watching the AFCON?? Cause I remember you said you’re not interested in watching at some point. Lemaooo!!! Anyway you’re a true fan of the SuperEagles.
@Ayphillydegreat,never say never!Hahaha..A true fan undeniably!As a matter of fact,unequivocally you’re right,we have huge options in all departments,Alhassan Yusuf is another important discovery,his presence gives us numbers and option in the midfield.
I’m sure it will be thrilling hopefully,we win.
Super eagles should do it for their fans,for the impoverished Nigerians,at the minimum something to give a succour for the sufferings and injustices these people have to put up with daily.
In my humble opinion I don’t think Nigerians are suffering or undergoing injustice. Obviously, we have our problems like every other country we still have a problems of going beyond our means.
In the western world you can afford to live beyond your means because there’s opportunity to obtain a lot of things on credit. Therefore, you can get anything you can’t afford.
However, in Nigeria when you’re working as a gateman and you have two wives and 10 children. Lmao!! Who do you think will help you take care of those kids?
Even at that Nigeria has the highest number of people between the ages of 18 and 45 in the world. That means we have a youthful population so who is suffering???
I think that suffering thing is exaggerated. I still have extended families living and doing great in Nigeria. Sometimes if I tell them to come to the US they’ll tell me they don’t care.
A country of over 200 million people will definitely have its own problems. Though I hope we get it right in so many ways but we’re emerging due to our diaspora communities involvement.
I don’t really like discussing politics, tribes or religion on a sporting website especially football because it’s the only that brings us together as a country.
However, I know for a fact that apart from the Norht African countries and South Africa, Nigeria is way better than most African countries.
at times i marvelled how some of us remembered what our friends said in a previous comments…and some will even go as fae as digging out that comments lolz…its interesting honestly and a sign of true friendships
My prayer is for us to take the match against Angola with all seriousness. Let it be pay back time as it reminded me of the road to Germany 2006 world cup. We lost in Luanda and could manage a draw in Kano giving Angola the free ticket to their first ever world cup in 2006.
May it never happen again!
Galadima finished us in 2006. Pure politics! We had no reason going to Sani Abacha Stadium where the turf was synthetic and the temperature in the city was close 40 degree. We just made that match a home game for Angola whose large chunk of players then played in Angola under the same condition we created for them in Nigeria.
Besides, Yobo-led defence that year wasn’t in good shape at all and it badly exposed us, both at home and away. Just check out the header Akwa nodded off Yobo in that 1-0 defeat in Luanda. But things are quite different now.
Did anyone notice the passion, the fire in these guys since we lost to EQ? It’s scary! They all took the match against Cameroon so personal that you’d begin to wonder if there was a war going on. Last time I saw that in the SEs was in 1994 and maybe at the Olympics in 1996. From the marking to the celebrations, solidarity to internal support, the fighting spirit in that team was high. That’s what I’m seeing now in this team, in fact in an upgraded form.
Within this present group, there seem to be this strong internal control and realistic personal objectives powered by the lofty heights the group intends to attain.
May be I’m been too optimistic, but with our defensive woes now behind us, and our attack determined to pick up the gauntlet, it’ll be hard, if not impossible for any team to overrun them. Teko Ekambi knew what he was saying when he remarked that other teams would soon realize why Cameroon lost woefully to Nigeria. The team really wanna win and the players have been very pragmatic about it. Just that some of us aren’t convinced yet because of our recent experiences with the team.
We just have to win three matches and that’s done. It will happen by God’s grace.
This is the second time SA are beating Morocco post world cup.
They seem to have Morocco’s number.
That penalty miss by Hakimi. OUCH.
Congrats SA. Well played!
It makes me more Scared when I remember we are playing same south Africa in June in a world cup qualifier game needing a win to get back to a comfortable position..
Let’s win this cup first and hope for the best
in the last afcon…this was exactly what happened to us…100% group stage and we underrated Tunisia…PLS, SUPER EAGLES SHOULD AVENGED LOST TO ANGOLA IN 2006 WORLD CUP QUALIFIER….E PAIN ME THWT YEAR AND I EVEN CRYIED LOL…JUST MAINTAIN THA GAME PLAN THAT HAS BEEN WORKING
hmmn
@Ololo, no need to be scared.SA does well against North African and South American teams because they have similar shibobo playing style, Technical, short passes etc.Against West African teams with a lot of physicality, they struggle and that is where the difference lies.Remember that they are short and frail.Any team wanting to beat them must exploit these.
No more minnows in Africa team. See how the mighty has fallen in this AFCON. It is unbelievable that a South African team dominated by home based players gwould whip the Moroccan team ranked by FIFA as the best African men football team. Wonderful!
I believe our own SE will take clue from all these happening. I want to use this platform to correct an error here, I saw a reknown Nigeria newspaper repeatedly making the same error. During the 2006 World Cup qualifying.Angola beat Nigeria 1-0 at Luanda and Nigerai beat Angola by 2-1 in Sanni Abacha stadium in Kano. it was not 1-1 as widely wrongly reported by some newspapers and some commentators here too. It was group qualification outfits, we had the same points but SE had better superior goal aggregate than them, but the CAF archaic away goal rule gave them the qualification. Instead of CAF to consider our superior goals favour, they rules SE out by away goal aggregate by considering the result between the two teams on away and home which is 2-2 but Angola scored in our home which gave them the qualification ticket to Germany for World Cup that year
Hope the present SE will put that mind and win this match for us? They should never underestimate Angola team. Big names don’t win match again. I wish them best luck and the match will be in their favour.