CAIRO – Thembinkosi Lorch scored five minutes from time to hand South Africa an upset 1-0 win and knock hosts Egypt out of the Africa Cup of Nations as the shock results at the competition continued on Saturday.
Stuart Baxter's South Africa, who had lost two of their three group games yet crept into the knockout stages, showed great improvement and were the more enterprising team, leaving 70,000 partisan fans stunned at the Cairo International Stadium.
Lorch finished off a sweeping counter-attack as South Africa, who created much the better chances, finally got an effort on target.
They will now meet Nigeria, who earlier on Saturday eliminated holders Cameroon in a come-from-behind victory, in Wednesday's quarter-final.
South Africa, who won the competition as hosts in 1996, have reached the knockout stages for the first time since 2013. In that year, they were knocked out of the tournament by Mali.
In the third time of asking, @BafanaBafana beat Egypt away to qualify to the last 8 🔥 #EGYRSA #TotalAFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/3M6rEtcq4x
— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 6, 2019