This comes despite South Africa not yet having played their Group K away fixture against Uganda in Kampala on Friday. South Africa targeted the game against Uganda as a must-win game, and victory would have ensured qualification.

However, there was a major twist on Thursday, when the bottom-of-the-group South Sudan stunned the 10-man Democratic Republic of Congo with a 3-2 win in Juba. This was no doubt a shocking result, and it has ensured that South Africa reached back-to-back Afcon’s for the first time in history.

Before Friday’s match, Uganda was on 10 points, with South Africa second on 8. The DR Congo were on 4 and cannot climb any further, while South Sudan are on 3 now.

This does take all the pressure off South Africa heading into their next two games; however, they are not done yet and they are aiming to finish at the top of Group K, and hence ensure themselves a better draw for Morocco.

Hugo Broos, who has become the first Bafana Bafana coach in history to earn back-to-back qualifications, said they still have a job that needs to be done in Kampala and Cape Town.

“We want to win the game, we want to win to finish top of the group and that means we have to beat Uganda,” said the Belgian coach who earlier in the week threatened to quit if they didn’t qualify.

‘We’ll play on their behalf as well, they have been on this journey with us’

“So qualifying does not change anything for us. I hope that it will be a nice game and a good game. It will be a full house, and there will be an atmosphere inside the stadium.

“This is motivation for the players and let us hope that the best team wins.”

The Bafana goalkeeper and captain, Ronwen Williams, in turn, said following what has been an outstanding year by winning the bronze medal at the 2024 Afcon in Ivory Coast, it’s important to end on a high and positive note.

“We want to finish the year on a positive note – we have had a wonderful year, a successful year, so we want to keep building on that.

“It is going to be a tough one and we are excited. The week has been amazing, we have some of the players back who have been injured and that is good. We lost some of our players to injury and we will be playing on their behalf as well because they have been on this journey with us.

“It has been a long journey, and we are proud of our achievement of getting to Afcon back-to-back.”

Friday’s Qualifier between Uganda and South Africa at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala will kick off at 15:00.

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg