Bafana Bafana's progression to the last eight of the AFCON finals will pit them against opposition that they have not had the best of memories against in recent times.
Bafana meet Cape Verde on Saturday to determine who meets either Nigeria or Angola in the semi-finals a week from now.
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Hugo Broos' men has South Africa back smiling again after accounting for the tournament's top ranked nation ,Morocco – who were standing amongst favourites to win the tournament based on their semi-finals exploits at the last World Cup in Qatar.
With all North African countries out, it is now a battle of Sub-Saharan Africa from the quarter-finals onwards for the first time since 2013.
Bafana last faced the island nation with a population of under 600 000 during the disastrous qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup under Stuart Baxter.
The Portuguese speaking side won both games 2-1.
There were two other World Cup qualifiers between the two countries played in 2004 and 2005 which were won by Bafana on a similar 2-1 during Baxter's first stint as head coach.
The only ever meeting between the two countries at the AFCON finals was in 2013 when Gordon Igesund was in charge.
It was a disappointing goalless draw in the opening match with Cape Verde making their debut appearance at the tournament.
Cape Verde – ranked seven places below Bafana, have arrived for their fourth appearance at the AFCON finals with Stopira as the only player attached to a club from their domestic league.
Bubista is their head coach while former Nottingham Forest winger Ryan Mendes is their captain.
The most prominent name in their squad is Bebe – once on the books of Manchester United.
Only thrice have Bafana ever won an AFCON quarter-final match from their 10 previous appearances but under Broos they have a man who has never lost a knockout game at this tournament.
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Bafana were successful at this stage on their way to lifting the trophy in 1996 when they went past Algeria.
In 1998, they went past Morocco in the last eight before ending up as runners-up then two years later were third placed after going past Ghana.
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