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Bafana Bafana beat hosts Uganda 2-0 in an anti-climatic clash in their Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) Group K qualifier, at the Mandela National Stadium, on Friday.
Starting off with a half of football to forget, neither side had a shot on target in the first 45 minutes in what was a particularly dull affair.
South Africa finally found their first shot on target, and with it the opening goal with the second half in its infancy. After a defensive blunder on the edge of the box, Uganda carelessly gave the ball away and Thapelo Morena was in the perfect position to slap the ball into the net and put his side ahead.
South Africa doubled their lead just before full time as Patrick Maswanganyi reeled off a good turn in the Uganda box, before firing off a powerful shot to put his side further ahead.
Both teams had already qualified for Afcon with two games to spare, due to a favourable result between Congo and South Sudan on Thursday.
The Cranes will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways when they take on Congo in Brazzaville on Tuesday.
Hosts South Sudan beat Congo 3-2 in their Group K qualifier. As a result, the bottom-placed South Sudan ended the slim hopes Congo had of making it to the tournament in Morocco next year.
With the win, South Sudan moved to three points with one match left to play, while Congo remained on four after the same number of games. It meant that Uganda on 10 points, and South Africa on eight, could celebrate without even taking the field of play.
South Africa now though, hold top spot on 11 points and can secure a better seeding at Afcon if they also win their final qualifier against South Sudan on Tuesday in Cape Town.
The two teams struggled to create clear-cut chances in the opening 15 minutes of the encounter with most of the ball being played in the middle of the park where there was a battle for control of the midfield.
Bafana Bafana grew gradually into the match and Cranes goalkeeper Ismail Watenga was called into action in the 26th minute – coming out to gather Aubrey Modiba’s attempted through pass for Elias Mokwana.
Mokwana was pulled out by coach Hugo Broos at halftime and replaced by Thapelo Morena, who proved to be an inspired substitute as the speedster scored to make it 1-0 to South Africa in the 49th minute after pouncing onto a poor back-pass.
Broos’s substitutes were proving to be very effective. Patrick Maswanganyi then sealed South Africa’s 2-0 victory over Uganda when he netted in the 89th minute after being set up by fellow substitute Iqraam Rayners. – Agencies
Online Reporter