Following their fourth-place finish in Qatar, the Atlas Lions had victories over Brazil and draws against Peru and Cape Verde in friendly matches. The match in Johannesburg marked their return to competitive action.
By Johnson Atoukudu:
Morocco suffered a 2-1 defeat in South Africa during the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match on Saturday, marking their first loss since reaching the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup. Meanwhile, Zambia celebrated a triumphant day for southern Africa by convincingly beating Ivory Coast 3-0 in Ndola, securing their place in the finals for the first time since 2015.
South Africa and Morocco, both with World Cup history, had already qualified for the tournament, setting the stage for an exciting clash in Group K. Despite the near-freezing conditions, a crowd of 50,000 gathered in Johannesburg.
Munir el Kajoui, standing in for the rested Yassine Bounou, committed a blunder in the goal as he let a Percy Tau cross slip from his grasp and into the net just five minutes into the game. Zakhele Lepasa added a second goal for South Africa in the 48th minute. Although Hakim Ziyech managed to reduce the deficit for Morocco in the 60th minute, they couldn’t find an equalizer. Last December, Morocco made history as the first African and Arab team to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
Following their fourth-place finish in Qatar, the Atlas Lions had victories over Brazil and draws against Peru and Cape Verde in friendly matches. The match in Johannesburg marked their return to competitive action.
South Africa coach Hugo Broos expressed satisfaction with the result, stating, “We could have scored four or five goals against Morocco, who are currently the best team in Africa, and it is a great confidence booster to beat them. Having played in front of small crowds lately, it was wonderful to have so many people backing us, and I believe they left the stadium feeling very proud to be South Africans.”
Morocco coach Walid Regragui, who orchestrated victories over Belgium, Spain, and Portugal before the World Cup semi-final loss to France, stated he was “not unhappy with the result,” adding that his players were tired after a demanding season of domestic and World Cup matches.
In another qualifying match, Zambia secured a crucial victory over Ivory Coast, who are already qualified as hosts. After their 2012 final victory, Zambia experienced a significant decline, failing to progress beyond the group stage in the subsequent two tournaments and failing to qualify for the following three editions. However, they revived their fortunes with a convincing performance, winning their fourth consecutive Group H match. Serge Aurier scored an own goal for Ivory Coast in the 32nd minute, followed by Patson Daka doubling the lead early in the second half. Kings Kangwa completed the rout after 55 minutes.
Elsewhere, Central African Republic’s hopes of making their maiden appearance in the African Cup of Nations are almost extinguished after a 2-1 defeat to Angola in Douala. A late goal from Felicio Milson sealed the victory for Angola after Geoffrey Kondogbia had equalized earlier for Central African Republic. Playing in Cameroon due to the absence of an international-standard stadium, Central African Republic had their goalkeeper Dominique Youfeigane sent off in the 70th minute.
Equatorial Guinea became the 10th team to qualify for the tournament, joining Ivory Coast, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, and Zambia. They secured their spot by narrowly defeating Tunisia 1-0 in Malabo, with Emilio Nsue converting a late penalty. Meanwhile, Libya suffered a 1-0 loss to Botswana, making the result irrelevant for Equatorial Guinea, who would have qualified regardless.
