Bafana Bafana players celebrating their victory over Cape Verde
By Richard Otega Enyeh
The Bafana Bafana of South Africa will meet the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the semifinals of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, at the Stade de Bouaké, Ivory Coast.
The Bafana Bafana beat
Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks 2-1 on Penalties in the quarter-finals played on Saturday. The match extended into extra time and penalties before a decisive winner emerged.
South Africa’s goalkeeper Ronwen Williams saved four penalties taken by Cape Verde players after a goalless 120 minutes on Saturday night.
Super Eagles and Bafana Bafana’s meeting at AFCON 2023 is coming after 24 years after Tijani Babangida’s brace saw-off South Africa in their last Africa Cup of Nations semi-final appearance, both sides will meet again next Wednesday to decide one of the finalists for this year’s AFCON.
Babangida’s 1st and 34th-minute goals took care of business on that occasion in front of a packed stadium in Surulere, Lagos when Nigeria co-hosted with Ghana.
Super Eagles and Bafana Bafana have met in subsequent AFCONs, In all the meetings, Nigeria has triumphed.
In Tunisia 2004, Nigeria saw off Bafana Bafana 4-0 in the group stage, while their last AFCON meeting was in 2019 in the quarter-finals when Egypt hosted. Samuel Chukwueze and Troost-Ekong’s goals helped Nigeria to a 2-1 win.
