Bafana’s record in Afcon knockout matches

South Africa will take a winning record in the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations into the round of 16 opponent in Morocco, where they will meet Cameroon in Rabat on Sunday.

Bafana have played 17 knockout matches at the continental finals and won eight, including the 1996 final against Tunisia.

They have also drawn five games, going to take three of those results via penalty shoot-outs and losing twice in the shootouts.

They have lost four games, the most painful loss being the 2-0 defeat to Egypt in the 1998 final, but they also went down by the same scoreline to Nigeria in the 2000 semifinal and Mali in the 2002 quarterfinal. There was also a 2-1 quarterfinal defeat to the Super Eagles in 2019.

The shoot-out losses came against Mali in the quarterfinals on home soil in 2013, and Nigeria in the semifinals at the last edition in the Ivory Coast.

South Africa’s biggest knockout round victory was the 1996 semifinal win over Ghana, where John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu scored twice and Shaun Bartlett added the other. Bafana won their first five knockout fixtures outright before losing the 1998 final to Egypt.

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Two of Bafana’s best Cup of Nations triumphs have come in their only two last-16 matches. They defeated hosts Egypt 1-0 in 2019, with Thembinkosi Lorch scoring an 85th-minute winner, and ousted fancied Morocco from the 2023 tournament with a 2-0 victory that set them on course for a third-place finish.

Bafana have kept seven clean sheets in their 17 knockout matches, which includes two 0-0 draws at the 2023 edition against Cape Verde (quarterfinals) and DR Congo (third-place play-off). They have failed to score in five of those games. Overall, Bafana have scored 20 goals and conceded 15, but 11 of those goals came in their first five knockout matches, with only nine scored in the following 12 fixtures.

Moshoeu and Benni McCarthy lead the way for Bafana in knockout-round goals with three each. There have been 12 different Bafana scorers in knockout matches. Among the current squad, Teboho Mokoena has two goals, having scored against Morocco and Nigeria at the 2023 edition, while Evidence Makgopa was also on target against the Moroccans.