Nigeria through after late Troost-Ekong goal

After knocking Egypt, the hosts and favourites, out in the round of 16, South Africa's Africa Cup of Nations was brought to an end thanks to a late Troost-Ekong goal despite battling back to level matter in the second half.

Nigeria took the lead through Samuel Chukwueze in the first half and looked the better team but a second half header from Zungu sent Bafana Bafana level. The goal was looked at by VAR, new to the competition since the start of the quarter-final, but the referee say it was fair.

With the game looking destined to go to extra-time, Troost-Ekong poked a corner home at the back post after goalkeeper, Williams, came out and missed with a haymaker to punch clear.

Nigeria are the second side in the semi-final after Senegal beat Benin earlier in the day.

South African players are literally floored. A late goal sends them home after a valiant effort.

That's it! Nigeria are through to the semi-final.

Ighalo has the chance to put this game to bed. He races through and Williams comes out to save. He puts it behind for a corner.

We will have four minutes of added time.

The keeper, who had made a wonderful save earlier, makes a mess of that one. Handy finish for Troost-Ekong.

Corner for Nigeria. Whipped in by Simon and Omeruo nearly gets a head to it. South Africa put it behind for a second corner in a row.

The sub is involved early. The ball is played across to him and a Nigerian defender jumps in front of him as he kicks the back of his leg.

Mothiba is off and on comes Veldwijk.

Baxter preparing his second sub.

Tau with an effort with his left foot. Akpeyi saves but promising from South Africa. This is anyone's game now. It was all Nigeria before but since that equaliser, they're frustrated and South Africa more confident.

Corner sent in and Williams is absolutely clatter by Ekong and goes down grabbing his head. 

Moses Simon comes on for Musa.

Iwobi down the right. He cuts inside and shoots. That goes well wide but more promising from Nigeria. 

Nigeria will want to end this on in normal time. They've been the better side but find themselves level.

Free sent in and grabbed by Williams.

Mkhize gets himself a booking. He caught Musa after lunging in and clipping his foot. 

Nigeria have wasted so many chances tonight. South Africa didn't do much of anything in attack but now we're level.

THE GOAL STANDS! It looked like he was certainly offside but the referee's understanding is that it hit off Etebo's back. 1-1.

Wait a minute! VAR intervenes after an offside flag is raised. Almost certain to be ruled out. Zungu, the goalscorer, was offside.

Nigeria concede a free. Tau ready to take. Too far out to shoot but plenty of yellow jerseys in the box to aim at. 

South Africa with the onus on them. Nigeria happy to sit back and counter attack.

Lorch off for Zwane as Baxter tries to make a difference from the sideline.

South Africa trying to make something happen now. Mkhize cross blocked into the path of his teammate and he crosses with Akpeyi grabbing it safely.

Effort from Mkhize. An ambitious one that couldn't match quality with how ambitious it was! He hit it well but it's about five yards wide. Akpeyi in goals barely blinks.

Fourth yellow of the game now as Tau comes through the back of Musa and catches him on the hamstring with a knee. Sore dose for Musa as Tau gets told by the ref to go away when he tries to argue with him. Some no-nonsense refereeing tonight from the man in the middle, Redouane Jiyed.

I don't think he touched him by Ndidi whistled for a free on Zungu.

Musa races clear and so, so close to setting Ighalo free. They're breaking more frequently into space now too.

Chukwueze, meanwhile, is turning every ball he touches into a chance. He takes it down the right and across goal. Nobody there to meet his low ball across the box.

Ball sent in by Furman and it is caught by Akpeyi. Nice handy one for the keeper really as South Africa continue to struggle to create anything meaningful.

A waste of a nice run and pass by Chukwueze as he takes it down expertly and clips it towards Musa. He heads it towards goal but kind of didn't really know where he was headering it to. South Africa recover.

Musa down the right as he skips by a few defenders. He pokes it inside and it's out for a corner! Nigeria have started this half with some extra verve.

Absolutely fantastic effort. Equally fantastic save from Williams! He stops the free from going into the top corner. Still 1-0 and the Super Eagles have a corner.

Ighalo taken down from behind. Captains Hlatshwayo sends out a warning early on in the second half. Ighalo in some pain after being caught in a few different places. 

Plenty of Egyptians in the crowd. They were probably expecting to be watching their home country in this one tonight before South Africa stunned them.

Some admin for you. No changes at the break by either side.

We are back underway!

The teams in the tunnel again as they get ready to emerge back onto the field!

Chukwueze getting all the love.

The first of many...

HT! 

Mothiba has his eyes on this one. Nice position to shoot too. He does shoot but it catches a Nigerian head in the wall. 

Corner for South Africa. And now they have a free in a dangerous position as Etebo gets in the way of Lorch and quite clearly bodychecks him.

Chukwueze threatening again as he cuts inside on his left and shoots. South Africa get bodies in the way and clear. He looks really dangerous any time he touches the ball.

Ball clipped inside and there's a handball on Mothiba. There might have also been a foul by Thulani as he jumped into the Nigerian defender's back. A lot of possible fouls but the ref only needed one to whistle.

Foul on Mothiba as the battle between himself and Ekong continues. Free South Africa.

Nigeria playing this one perfectly now as South Africa search for the equaliser. They are well able to soak pressure and have so much speed in attack that they are so dangerous on the counter. It feels like it's just a matter of time before they get another one.

Free delivered in but it's headed out and now Musa gets it, cuts inside again, and lays it off to Chukwueze. Nah! That shot is a mile over.

Free for South Africa as captain, Musa, finds himself on the wrong side of the referee. He clips Mkhize's leg after he played the ball. Soft yellow but referee trying to keep things civil here.

Musa probably could have been a little more selfish there. He cuts inside and has the chance to try a curler. Instead he looks for Iwobi and South Africa clear. More space for Nigeria out on the wings now as South Africa chase that equaliser.

Chukwueze is being forced into the middle due to the tactic to let Awaziem take up the whole right wing. The Villarreal winger sends a ball out to Musa but a little too much sauce on that one.

There's that long ball out to Awaziem again as he takes it down and Ndidi picks it up. 

South Africa try to respond straight away but Nigeria clear. Stuart Baxter up off his bench with some words of wisdom for his players. They're under pressure now.

And as the game opens up, it suits Nigeria! 

Lovely ball out to Musa, who does very well to get to it first down the left-hand side. He crosses it and Iwobi is there waiting. He's left waiting as South Africa clear! nice move from Nigeria as this game continue to open up.

Free for Nigeria and Iwobi sends it in. South Africa have the chance to break but they make a mess of it. Nigeria, despite not being very good in this half, are the better side. If they could just get to grips with South Africa's physicality, they would be dominating this.

The first nice move from Nigeria in a while. Iwobi to Musa and he pops it inside to Ighalo. The striker plays it out to his side and South Africa win it back before they win a free and the referee relieves pressure for them.

Nigeria get it again but South Africa foil them and play it back to Williams. Cleared and it takes a kind Bafana Bafana bounce as they win a throw.

Musa tries to play the ball through to Collins but it's too heavy and the full-back misses out.

Lovely pass by Lorch but Mkhize can't stretch his leg that high for fearing of his hamstring tearing off the bone. It was offside anyway but his lack of flexibility sees him miss the ball anyway.

Nice play from Mothiba. He takes the ball down and takes off, slowing down at the right moment when he sees space closing around him. South Africa have been the better side so far after almost 20 minutes.

Now Collins is caught in the chest as he tries to spin past Mkhize. It's the South African who remains down, however, as he gets treatment from the medical staff. He makes his way off the field to regain his composure. Pain in his ribs is the diagnosis but he seems fine to continue.

Mothiba gets a fairly tame yellow for a tug on Awaziem. Referee figures poor Awaziem has been fouled enough tonight and breaks out the yellow for a debut.

Ekong bulldozed off the ball by Lorch. Free for Nigeria.

South Africa have improved after a good Nigerian start. The Super Eagles can't get on the ball.

South Africa taking their sweet time now on the ball at the back before launching an assault on Nigeria's half of the field. It's a good one too as Lorch gets played through on goal. He drives it well wide though.

Chukwueze sends it in and South Africa send it out.

Hlanti is lucky not to get at least a yellow card there.

Awaziem takes the ball down as it gets driven out to him. He skips by Hlanti, or so he thinks. The left-back chops him down and it's a free for Nigeria. Awaziem has a really sore shin for himself after it as he limps away. 

Awaziem crosses. South Africa struggle to clear and it's sent over the bar by Ndidi. He caught that one well but it was always rising.

Free crossed in as South Africa recover the cleared header. Free on Ndidi as he tries to bring it out from the back. Nigeria relieve the pressure with a free as Akpeyi takes his time over it before launching towards Ighalo.

Ekong to Omeruo and he whips it out to the right. Ball comes straight back down on top of Omeruo and he absolutely clatters Lebo in the back. Referee calls him over and tells him to take it easy. 

First chance for Nigeria. Musa on the left and he crosses looking for Ighalo. It beats him and the whistle goes but not entirely sure why. Wasted chance anyway but promising early from Nigeria.

Throw immediately for South Africa as the ball out to the right is aimed at nobody really. 

We are underway in the second and final quarter-final of the day!

No John Obi Mikel so Musa stands in as the captain as Thulani Hlatshwayo meets him in the middle for the coin toss. 

Plenty of emotion as you'd expect. South Africa have never beaten Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations. They just beat Egypt in their home stadium and by default become the home nation! Plenty riding on this game.

And now it's South Africa's anthem. A rather slow and somewhat daunting tune.

Nigeria's national anthem first up in Cairo.

The highest attendance was Egypt's win over Uganda in the group stages. 

74,566 showed up for that one but it won't get close to that tonight.

We are just over 10 minutes from kick-off in Cairo. The good news for the neutral is that there hasn't been a 0-0 draw in the games played there during the Africa Cup of Nations this summer. There have been 11 goals in 8 games. Not a massive amount of goals scored but at least it's something.

Ighalo is Nigeria's talisman and South Africa don't have a goalscorer with more than a goal. Lurch and Zungu, their two scorers so far, do start though so maybe they can double their accounts tonight.

There has not been more than one goal scored in each of South Africa's four games so far. They lost 1-0 twice and won 1-0 twice. Nigeria on the other hand won 3-2 last day out, conceded two during a loss to Madagascar before that, and won their opening two games 1-0.

Bafana Bafana singing their way into the stadium!

Cairo International Stadium is the home of tonight's game. It won't reach its 75,000 capacity nor its record atttendance of 120,000 but South Africa feel comfortable here having already knocked out the favourites and hosts a few days ago. 

Senegal win the first quarter-finals of the African Cup of Nations 2019.

Bafana Bafana with a Nigeria-inspired training top, it would seem.

A nice article here on Stuart Baxter trying to give South Africa hope in troubling times for the country.

They haven't been to a final since 1998 when Egypt beat them in Burkina Faso.

The last time South Africa won the tournament was in 1996. They also hosted the tournament that year and beat Tunisia 2-0 in the final.

South Africa have won two and lost two in the AFCON to date. They beat Egypt, of course, and Namibia. They have lost to Morocco and Ivory Coast though.

South Africa XI: Williams, Mkhize, Hlanti, Mkhwanazi, Hlatshwayo, Furman, Mokotjo, Zungu, Lorch, Tau, Mothiba.

Those jerseys remain a sight to behold!

Iwobi, Chukwueze and Ighalo is quite a potent attack for Nigeria with Musa on the left. Chukwueze starts ahead of Moses Simon.

Jamilu Collins comes in for Omeruo as the only other change by Rohr from their 3-2 win over Cameroon.

Nigeria XI: Akpeyi, Awaziem, Ekong, Omeruo, Collins, Ndidi, Etebo, Musa, Iwobi, Chukwueze, Ighalo.

Baxter says there won't be any special plan to stop Ighalo, who has three goals in four games and an assist in the other! 

“We don’t make individual plans for players in terms of man marking etc. We would solve that as a team. We would make it difficult for them [Nigeria] to play quality balls to their strikers and would defend like we normally defend."

Stuart Baxter, the Wolverhampton-born Scotsman, has been all over the world as a manager. He has won titles in Sweden and with the Kaizer Chiefs but an African Cup of Nations victory would crown his managerial achievements.

The two teams have played each other twice in the history of the African Cup of Nations. And it doesn't make for pretty reading for South Africa.

Nigeria have won both, scoring six times and conceding none.

Senegal and Benin are currently playing. It's half-time and it's 0-0.

The quarter-finals are as follows:

Senegal v Benin - 10 July, Cairo

Nigeria v South Africa - 10 July, Cairo

Madagascar v Tunisia - 11 July, Cairo

Ivory Coast v Algeria - 11 July, Suez

And don't forget, of course, we have VAR in the quarter-finals so there will be no debate whatsoever on social media during and afters games (sarcasm font unavailable).

Take a trip through some of the most colourful fans seen in the stands at the African Cup of Nations this summer.

There's nothing like a game of 'we're not the favourites, you are' between two managers before a game. Rohr put the label on South Africa after the Egypt win but Baxter wasn't buying it:

“Nigeria are absolutely one of the best teams on the continent and have been for a long time. One game doesn’t make us favourites. I don’t think he’s (Rohr) fooling anybody."

Hello and welcome to the AFCON 2019 clash between Nigeria's Super Eagles vs South Africa's Bafana Bafana! This could be the clash of the round with Gernot Rohr's side facing Stuart Baxter's charges. 

South Africa beat host side Egypt in the round of 16 with just the one goal settling that tie.

Nigeria overcame Cameroon but needed three in a 3-2 victory.