South Sudan and South Africa will battle it out for three crucial points in Group K of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the Juba Stadium on Tuesday.
Neither team was able to come away with a victory from their respective opening encounters, and they will both be keen to return to winning ways here.
Match preview
South Africa snatched a hard-fought point from the jaws of defeat in their clash against Uganda at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Friday evening, which ended in a thrilling 2-2 stalemate.
Hugo Broos's men wasted no time getting their noses in front through Lyle Foster before quickfire goals from Denis Omedi and Rogers Mato Kassim turned the game on its head, only for Thalente Mbatha to restore parity with almost the last kick.
The Bafana Bafana have been tipped by many to finish top of their qualifying group, but their performance against Uganda fell way short of expectations for the one-time African champions.
Mbatha's late equaliser last time out saw South Africa extend their unbeaten streak to nine games across all competitions since February's AFCON semi-final defeat to eventual runners-up Nigeria.
However, Tuesday's visitors are without a victory in competitive games on enemy territory—excluding major tournaments—dating back to March 2023, when they narrowly defeated Liberia 2-1.
South Sudan's poor run of form in 2024 continued as they fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Congo in Thursday's meeting between the teams at Stade Alphonse Massemba-Debat.
Nicolas Dupuis's men went behind to Massanga Matondo's opening strike after just 12 minutes, and they never quite looked like getting themselves back on level terms in Brazzaville.
As a result, The Bright Stars remain without a victory from five matches since the turn of the year and have now come out on top in just one of their last 12 involvements across all competitions.
More worryingly for South Sudan, they have been poor at both ends of the pitch in that time, having found the back of the net on just six occasions while also letting in a whopping 30 goals.
Having finished bottom of each of their last five AFCON qualifying groups, Tuesday's hosts will need to turn things around quickly in their quest to make it through to the tournament proper for the first time ever.
Team News
Lyle Foster has scored in consecutive games for club and country heading into Tuesday's affair, where the Burnley man will be looking to deliver the goods once more.
Midfielder Thalente Mbatha had a debut to remember for South Africa as he grabbed a late leveller within 14 minutes of his introduction off the bench.
Filling in for the unavailable Ronwen Williams, Veli Mothwa was largely underwhelming against Uganda but should retain his place between the sticks.
South Sudan's Joseph Dhata is a huge doubt to feature on Tuesday after he was hauled off in the early exchanges of the defeat to Congo through injury.
Atendele Mawa came on as a substitute in the aforementioned game and is the favourite to come into the hosts' XI should Dhata—who he replaced last time out—be deemed unfit to participate.
South Sudan possible starting lineup:
Mawith; Thomas, Maker, Taban; Loki, Gadafi, Chol, Jawa; Mawa, Okello, Yuel
South Africa possible starting lineup:
Mothwa; Mudau, Ngezana, Dortley, Modiba; Sithole, Mokoena; Mokwana, Zwane, Appollis; Foster
We say: South Sudan 0-2 South Africa
Given South Sudan's struggles heading into this one, anything less than three points for South Africa will be met with a lot of disgruntlement.
We are backing the away side to cruise to a relatively routine victory at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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