Sport

Bafana set up Moz semi tie

Matthew Marcus|Published

LITTLE THREAT: Bafana’s Thabang Sibanyoni, right

Bafana Bafana will face Mozambique in tomorrow’s Cosafa Cup semifinal after finishing top of Group A yesterday following a goalless stalemate with Zambia.

Despite not scoring at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, South Africa continued to look solid at the back and repelled the Copper Bullets with a fourth straight clean sheet at the tournament.

Coach Morena Ramoreboli made a number of changes to his side for this game, having beaten Lesotho 4-0 just 24 hours earlier.

Bafana, though, couldn’t replicate their previous fluid performance of the day before.

STALEMATE: Bafana v Zambia

The tournament hosts dominated ball possession and territory, but needed more patience to open up Chipolopolo, who were happy to sit back and break on the counter.

One such raid needed a touch from Njabulo Ngcobo to deny Cape Town City striker Justin Shonga a shot at debutant Cape Town Spurs goalkeeper Lincoln Vyver in the 19th minute.

SA did threaten in the 20th minute as Thabang Sibanyoni cut in from the right and curled a left-footed effort just wide.

A flowing 50th-minute Bafana move was nipped in the butt by substitute goalkeeper Gregory Sanjase, punching away a cross just off the top of Kagiso Malinga’s head.

Man of the Match Yusuf Maart impressed in SA’s midfield, pulling the strings and sending a late long-range strike just over the crossbar.

But against familiar opposition in PSL-based stars like Shonga, Kennedy Mweene, Rodrick Kabwe and Augustine Mulenga, Bafana will be happy things didn’t turn out worse against former Orlando Pirates boss Micho’s manne.

After tomorrow's rest day, guest side Senegal will play eSwatini in Friday’s other semifinal.

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