Bafana Bafana progressed to the knockout stages of the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time since the 2002 tournament after failing to do so in their last three appearances in 2004, 2006 and 2008 thanks to a man of the match performance from Amakhosi goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune that helped them play out to a 2-2 draw with Morocco in their final group game of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.

Morocco who needed a win to progress to the next phase threw everything at Bafana Bafana and as early as the fourth minute the Amakhosi No 1 was called into action as he was given no cover from his central defenders - he managed to push out a hand to stop the dangerous Youssef El Arabi who attempted to chip the ball over him.

In the 10th minute Morocco though took the lead as Khune failed to punch clear a Morocco corner - Issam El Adoua was able to turn home the ball from close range, ten minutes later the Chiefs No 1 managed to pull off another match saving stop diving low to his left to turn a stinging shot from Chahir Belghazouani round his post.

In the 27th minute Chiefs striker Bernard Parker was set up by Thuso Phala his shot from the left went across goal and agonisingly close to an equalizer, on the stroke of halftime Khune ran out acting as a fifth defender and taking the role of a sweeper he stormed out of his 18 yard area and stopped Al Arabi by getting the ball under his body before getting rid of the danger.

The game saving moment came in the 60th minute when a mistake by Siyabonga Sangweni set El Arabi on his way to goal only for Khune to once again command his area and made himself big to block away the Moroccan attackers attempted deft chip.

Bafana found themselves level in the 71st minute with a wonder goal from May Mahlangu, the ante was upped when eight minutes from time a player who came into the Moroccan team as an eleventh hour replacement Abdelilah Hafid struck from inside the Bafana 18 yard area to put Morocco in front.

There was a further twist in the tale as Sangweni made up for a number of his earlier indiscretions as he leveled scored with a strike from distance to bring parity in the game as he scored his second goal of the tournament.

In the other Group A game Cape Verde scored an injury time winner to push through in second place with Bafana, South Africa will remain in Durban to face the second placed team in Group B in the ¼ Finals which could likely be any of Ghana, DR Congo or Mali.

Khune’s heroics helped Bafana advance and his performance was described as ‘fantastic’ by Bafana coach Gordon Igesund in his post-match comments, Bafana’s quarterfinal game will be played on Saturday (2 February 2013), kick-off at 20:30