Bafana, Lions set for Durban battle

South Africa and Cameroon will meet for another heavyweight clash in Group M of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. The teams are set to battle in Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday evening at 19h00 CAT.

They played to a highly-entertaining 2-2 draw in Limbe on Saturday. Bafana Bafana twice took the lead thanks to superb goals from Tokelo Rantie and Hlompho Kekana, but the Indomitable Lions fought back though Sebastien Siani and Nicolas N’Koulou.

While a draw away to Cameroon would normally be considered an excellent result, in the context of the current group standings it simply wasn’t enough for South Africa, who will still be two points behind the West African heavyweights even if they claim victory in Durban.

With the Indomitable Lions’ remaining two matches set to be against minnows Gambia and Mauritania, it seems inevitable that they will end top of the group and claim the only guaranteed qualifying berth from the pool.

Cameroon coach Hugo Broos was very complimentary about Bafana Bafana following the match, but he reiterated his side’s determination to win all of their remaining games and secure qualification for Gabon 2017.

"It is clear that I was not happy with the Saturday's game," said Broos. "We wanted to win, but I have already said before that I didn't understand how South Africa were last in our group. They are a very strong team.

"The only way to be certain of qualification is by winning all our remaining games. And we have to start with Tuesday's match against South Africa. It will be a difficult game.

"We will continue to keep working hard and try to get a positive result. I am convinced that we will have a good team out there on Tuesday. We have to find solutions to win the game.”

Cameroon will now also be able to call on arguably their best attacking player, Porto striker Vincent Aboubakar, who was ruled out of the game on Saturday due to suspension.

"With Aboubakar, we will have an attacker who can be more dangerous than the attackers we had at the weekend,” said Broos. “We will try to make amends for Saturday's game."

South African midfielder Kekana – who scored a simply incredible goal in Limbe on Saturday by shooting home from inside his own half – believes his team has no option but to beat Cameroon and hope that things go their way in the remainder of the qualifiers.

“We really have to win that match, we have no more options left as we are left with nine points to play for seeing that we only have two after three matches. Three points will take us closer to the leaders with two matches remaining and we have to fight. I believe in this team and still think that we stand a chance of going to Gabon,” he told SAFA Media.

Burkina Faso referee Juste Ephrem Zio will take charge of the match in Durban. The other Group M game between Gambia and Mauritania will be played on the same day in Bakau.