South Africa held by plucky Tanzania
Defending champion South Africa was held to a 1-1 draw at the 2024 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, leaving Group C wide open as the teams fight for a place in the knockout stages in Morocco.
Tanzania opened the scoring in the 24th minute thanks to a towering header from Opah Clement, putting Banyana Banyana behind for the first time in its proud and long history at the tournament.
The Twiga Stars held on deep into the second half, Najiat Abass Idrisa making a sensational save from a long-range pildriver from Fikile Magama on 68 minutes that left the goalkeeper feeling worse for wear.
From the resulting corner, South Africa found its equaliser, Bambanani Mbane poking home inside the six yard box to level the scores.
Tanzania was reduced to 10 with six minutes of normal time remaining after the video assistant referee spotted a nasty rake down the achilles of Linda Motlhalo by Tanzania's Elizabeth John Chenge, who was shown a straight red card after the referee had checked the pitchside monitor.
But Tanzania held on to the final whistle, ensuring it took a point from the match and left the group without a clear winner with one match to play in the round robin phase.
South Africa remains on top of the table with four points, level with second-placed Mali, which drew 1-1 with Ghana earlier in the day.
Tanzania and Ghana have a point each in third and fourth respectively and will face each other in their final fixture while South Africa and Mali will square off at the same time, all four teams still a chance of finishing in the top two qualifying spots.
