Mofokeng brace helps South Africa crush Eritrea

JOHANNESBURG: Relebohile Mofokeng scored his first two goals for South Africa as they cruised to a 5-0 victory over Eritrea on Wednesday in 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying.

Yaya Sithole, Iqraam Rayners and Luther Singh also netted in Cairo. Eritrea hosted the matchday two fixture in Egypt as they do not have an international-standard stadium.

Initially, Eritrea did not resemble a team 134 places below South Africa in the world rankings. They went on the offensive, testing captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Willians several times.

But once Mofokeng, 21, broke the deadlock on 19 minutes, South Africa took control and just missed matching their record AFCON qualifying winning margin of 6-0 against the Seychelles.

Belgium-based midfielder Mofokeng struck again at the end of the first half for a 2-0 half-time lead at a near-deserted 30,000-seat Al Salam Stadium in the Egyptian capital.

Sithole scored early in the second half, then Rayners became the first South Africa forward to find the net in six matches by slamming the ball across goalkeeper Yonathan Sultan.

Substitute Singh completed the rout four minutes into added time to take South Africa five points clear of Kenya and Eritrea in Group D. Guinea are pointless.

Guinea can reduce the gap behind South Africa to three points if they beat Kenya in Conakry on Thursday.

Kenya automatically qualify from the mini-league as AFCON co-hosts with Tanzania and Uganda. That leaves the other three countries fighting for one qualifying place.--AFP