Burnley striker Lyle Foster is among the scorers as Bafana Bafana beat Zimbabwe 3-2 in a thriller to reach the last 16 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
CAF Africa Cup of Nations
Zimbabwe 2 - 3 South Africa FT
South Africa booked their place in the knockout stage of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Zimbabwe in Marrakech.
In a game which see-sawed back and forth, Oswin Appollis' late penalty helped Bafana Bafana finish second in Group B, behind Egypt who drew their final game 0-0 against Angola, with Zimbabwe bottom of the pile and eliminated.
South Africa made a flying start against their neighbours, taking the lead inside seven minutes when Tshepang Moremi's shot took a wicked deflection to loop over stranded goalkeeper Washington Arubi.
Zimbabwe responded in style, with Tawanda Maswanhise producing a moment of brilliance as he danced through the defence before firing one of the goals of the tournament into the bottom corner.
The second half began with even greater intensity and the 1996 champions restored their advantage in the 50th minute when Burnley striker Lyle Foster pounced on a back header, beating Arubi to the ball to nod home his second goal of the group stage.
Zimbabwe, who made a triple substitution to inject fresh urgency, refused to wilt, and their persistence was rewarded with a huge slice of luck when goalkeeper Ronwen Williams made a save, only to see the ball cannon off the face of covering defender Aubrey Modiba and into the net.
But Appollis' spot kick settled things, after Warriors skipper Marvelous Nakamba was penalised for a diving handball following the intervention of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
South Africa will now travel to Rabat to face the runner-up from Group F, while Zimbabwe are still yet to make it out of the group in any of their six appearances at Afcon.
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Category: General Sports
