South Africa will have an eye on the 2025 U20 Africa Cup of Nations semi-final when they clash with DR Congo on Monday evening.
Amajita had an impressive group stage campaign, finishing top of Group A with seven points after two wins and a draw, and will look to maintain that in the quarter-final against the Congolese.
This is the first quarter-final for South Africa at the tournament since in the four other occasions they made the knockout rounds, the tournament went straight into semi-finals.
How have South Africa performed so far?
Raymond Mdaka’s team have spread out their goals with the six scored so far netted by five different players and only Thabang Mahlangu managing more than one, having scored twice.
Amajita started their U20 AFCON campaign with a 1-0 loss to Egypt but recovered brilliantly to beat Tanzania 1-0, Sierra Leone 4-1 before a 1-1 draw with Zambia to book their place in the quarter-finals.
Now, they have an eye on the semi-finals as they take on DR Congo looking to go one better than in 1997 when they reached the final but lost to Morocco.
Congo sneaked into the quarters but…
However, the Congolese will offer a different test as they sneaked through to the quarter-finals as one of the two third-placed finishers, having started with a 1-1 draw with Ghana, beaten Central Africa Republic 3-1, before finishing group stage action with a 2-0 defeat to Senegal.
The Congolese will, however, hope to grow in strength with Samuel Ntanda-Lukisa and Noah Makanza, the only two players to score at the tournament, looking to make their presence felt in the knockout round.
History does not favour DR Congo though as they have never been to the knockout rounds before, but the Class of 2025 will want to write their own chapter of history, hence a warning to South Africa.
Time & where to watch Amajita vs DR Congo
This is the first meeting between the two sides with the match set to kick off at 22:00 (South African time) and will be live on YouTube via CAF TV.
