Hugo Broos has announced his starting XI to face Morocco in today’s final Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
South Africa will take on Morocco at FNB Stadium at 17:00 on Saturday, with both sides having already qualified for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
Morocco were the first team to qualify after they won their first two games in Group K, a 2-0 against Liberia and a 2-1 against South Africa in the reverse fixture.
With this only being a three-time group after Zimbabwe remain suspended from international football by FIFA, the top two team are qualifying and Bafana snatched the second spot.
Broos’ men made sure they will be ahead of Liberia thanks to a 2-2 draw and 2-1 win over the Lone Stars in the previous international window.
Morocco enter this game as favourites after their brilliant run at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where they became the first African side to reach the semi-finals after beating Belgium and Canada in the group stages, followed by wins over Spain (on penalties) and Portugal.
Even though Walid Regragui’s men ran out of steam and lost 2-0 to France in the semi-final before a 2-1 defeat to Croatia in the third-place play-off.
After the World Cup, they also collected an impressive 2-1 win over Brazil, which was followed by two goalless draws.
Bafana, meanwhile, are unbeaten in six games since their 5-0 defeat to France, beating Sierra Leone (4-0), Botswana (1-0), Mozambique (2-1) before a 1-1 draw with Angola in September and October.
On Saturday, Bafana want to prove that they have improved since their 2-1 first-leg defeat, which continued a four-match winless run against the Atlas lions.
Here is how they line up:
South Africa XI: Williams, Maela, Xulu, Mvala, Morena, Aubass, Mokoena, Zwane, Mayambela, Tau, Lepasa
Subs: Mothwa, Mobbie, Modiba, Saleng, Le Roux, Maseko, Hlongwane, Sibisi, Mailula, Blom, Goss
Morocco XI: Kajoui, Hakimi, Mazroui, Aguerd, Saiss, Ziyach, Maleh, Aboukhlal, Idrissi, Louza, En-Nesyri
