Head coach Duncan Crowie believes Senegal were simply too strong as South Africa's Under-17s suffered a 5-0 defeat in an African Cup of Nations quarter-final on Thursday.
Amajimbos had qualified for the knockout stages through the best third-place rule after managing to collect one win from three group stage matches against Morrocco, Zambia and Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Senegal had breezed through the group stages with a 100% winning record against Congo, Algeria and Somalia to set up a quarter-final clash against Crowie's side.
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The defeat also means Amajimbos have failed to qualify for 2023 U17 FIFA World Cup in November.
"I don't think it's a case of the physical condition, I think it's a case of the strength of Senegal," Crowie said post-match.
"They were just stronger than us, pushing us off the ball, quicker than us in the wing play, crossing the ball and their aerial power.
"They are quite good as far as the crosses are concerned and as I've mentioned earlier, that is how they scored their goals. We knew about it and there's nothing we could do about it.
"It's never nice to lose by the number of goals that we did."
"I wouldn't say it's a case of losing their mentally there [when the own goal was scored], the second goal came too soon after the first goal, and it's always disappointing if you concede an own goal after working so hard for close to 40 minutes."
"I'm not going to blame anybody, a person can blame that one in the far post, a person can blame the player who scored the own goal, a person can blame the player that allowed the cross to come in.
"There's such a lot of things that a person could do, but like I mentioned earlier, you have got to learn from those things.
"Even in the second half, it's difficult coming back against a quality team like Senegal."
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