Bafana Bafana were held to a 1-1 draw by Nigeria in Bloemfontein on Tuesday night but their 2026 Fifa World Cup fate is still very much in their own hands.
With this share of the spoils, Bafana stay on top of Group C with 17 points from eight matches and are favourites to seal qualification in the next two matches against Rwanda and Zimbabwe in October.
The Super Eagles have moved to second spot, equal on 11 points with second- and third-placed Benin and Rwanda, but they are outsiders for automatic promotion to the global showpiece to be hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada in 2026.
The good news for SA is they take on Zimbabwe next, where Bafana will be looking to seal qualification with a match to spare.
Bafana, who were backed by a strong Free State crowd, settled first in the game and in one early attack, winger Oswin Appollis forced a save out of Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.
Nigeria suffered a huge blow inside 10 minutes when influential defender Ola Aina was injured in a tackle by SA’s Samukele Kabini and replaced by Bright Osayi.
That move was engineered by playmaker Sipho Mbule who interchanged passes with Teboho Mokoena and Bathusi Aubaas before the ball landed in the box and Appollis unleashed a thunderous shot that went straight to Nwabali.
Tempers ran high in the second half, and the referee called coaches Hugo Broos and Eric Chelle for a short meeting to talk to their players and technical team members to calm down.
SA opened the scoring on 25 minutes when Nigeria captain William Troost-Ekong put the ball into his own net in a desperate attempt to clear a dangerous ball from winger Mohau Nkota.
Bafana continued their momentum but failed to take their chances and were later punished with Nigeria pulling one back.
The equaliser arrived on the stroke of halftime when defender Calvin Bassey rose the highest in the box to beat Ronwen Williams but television replays showed the ball touched his hand on its way into the empty net.
Broos made four changes to the team that thrashed Lesotho on Friday, recalling experienced defender Siyabonga Ngezana to partner impressive teenager Mbekezeli Mbokazi in central defence. The experienced Ngezana was put in to replace Thabo Moloisane, who left the pitch in the second half against Lesotho with a head injury but he recovered to be on the bench against the Super Eagles.
Elsewhere at the back, Kabini was preferred to Aubrey Modiba, Zuko Mdunyelwa took the right back position he occupied when he came on for injured Nyiko Mobbie last week.
In the midfield, Broos chose Bathusi Aubaas for Thalente Mbatha to partner Mokoena and his attack remained the same with Mohau Nkota, Sipho Mbule, Oswin Appollis and Lyle Foster.
Nigeria coach Chelle went with the tried and tested of Stanley Nwabali, William Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina, Wilfred Ndidi, Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi and Cyriel Dessers but they could not get the much-needed victory they wanted.
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