Bafana Bafana will come up the continent's top ranked nation in the last 16 AFCON finals feeling encouraged by the order of surprises that have been happening at the tournament.
The 34th edition of the competition has provided as much thrills and goals as it has dished out shock results which gives Bafana Bafana reason to believe that they could add their name to the upsets scripts.
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Thrills and goals have come from the fact that it was only on Wednesday night that the first goalless game was witnessed at the tournament.
As Bafana played out a stalemate with Tunisia, Namibia also stood up to Mali before Tanzania went on to record a similar result against their neighbours on the other side of Lake Tanganyika – DRC.
A massive 89 goals have already been scored in Cote d'Ivoire (68 were scored at this stage in the last two tournaments) where there is no nation making a debut appearance.
Of interest have been the upsets with Equatorial (ranked 88) topping with ease a group featuring Nigeria (42) and Cote d'Ivoire (49).
Nzalang Nacional stunned the Elephants 4-0 on Monday.
Cape Verde (73) did the same in Group B finishing top ahead of Egypt (33) and Ghana (61) with The Black Stars suffering the humiliation of being knocked out.
Mozambique (111) went out without defeat against both Egypt and Ghana.
Group C had no surprises with Senegal (20) on top, Cameroon (46) second and Guinea (80) third.
Angola – ranked 117th, provided another upset in Group D finishing ahead of Burkina Faso (57), Mauritania (105), and Algeria (30).
The top rank in the group – Algeria, finished bottom throwing down the drain the order of rankings which determined how teams were group for the tournament.
Palancas Negras didn't break a sweat despite being the lowest team in the group.
Group E provided further surprises with the top ranked country Tunisia (28) sent packing after finishing bottom of a group that had Namibia (115), South Africa (66), and Mali (51).
The Brave Warriors shocked the Tunisians with a 1-0 win in the group opener.
Down in Group F, Morocco (13) and DR Congo (67) went through with ease against Zambia (84) and Tanzania (121).
So, with such a trail of upsets at the tournament, Bafana will fancy their chances against Morocco who they met in the qualifiers as recent as June 2023 and beat 2-1.
Bafana's record against the North Africans at the AFCON finals reads W, W, D, D, L.
It was a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals of the 1998 AFCON finals, then a 3-1 win in Group B at the 2002 tournament followed by a 1-1 draw in Group D in 2004, and then 2-2 in Group A in 2013.
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The most recent meeting was a Group D tie in 2019 which The Atlas Lions won 1-0.
Should Bafana get past Morocco, then they face either Cape Verde or Mauritania in the last eight and then any of Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola or Namibia in the semi-finals.
Broos took an understrength Cameroon to success at the 2017 AFCON finals and his record at this tournament shows that he has no defeat in the knockout stages.