Bafana Bafana’s hopes of reaching Qatar 2022 were dashed after suffering a 1-0 defeat to Ghana in their final Group G clash on Sunday night.
Siyanda Xulu was handed a starting berth ahead of Njabulo Ngcobo, then Ethan Brooks took the place of Keagan Dolly and Victor Letsoalo returned from suspension in place of Evidence Makgopa.
South Africa were put under intense pressure in the opening minutes and they could have been behind in the 14th minute after Rushine De Reuck’s slip allowed Jordan Ayew to race clear on goal but the Black Stars forward couldn’t hit the target.
Daniel-Kofi Kyereh came on to replace the injured Mohammed Kudus moments later, but he could have grabbed the opener seconds later but he struck his effort over the crossbar with only Ronwen Williams to beat.
Ghana’s pressure from the start of the game finally paid off just after the half-hour mark after De Reuck was adjudged to have fouled Daniel Amartey in the area, which was cooly converted by Andre Ayew on his 100th appearance for Ghana.
Hugo Broos’ men struggled to get out of their own half for most of the first half, as the likes of Tau and Letsoalo were unable to get the right service to threaten the Black Stars defence in the opening 45 minutes.
Bafana came out better after the break, with Tau was in the mood to take the game to Ghana and the Al Ahly forward tested shot-stopper Jojo Wollacott for the first time in the 65th minute with a free-kick and again 120secs later, but the Ghanaian shot stopper was equal to the task.
In a bid to make changes, Broos made his first change 20 minutes before time, as he introduced Dolly in place of Brooks and Bafana felt they could’ve got a penalty of their own after Tau went down inside the box from a challenge following Dolly’s through ball but the referee waved play on.
Milovan Rajevac’s men could have wrapped the game up in the 77th minute after goalkeeper Ronwen Williams miscued a clearance, but Kamaldeen Sulemana fired wide of the mark with the net left unguarded.
In the end, Ghana did well to thwart Bafana and secured maximum points to advance to the play-off round while Bafana fail to qualify for yet another World Cup.