Striker Katlego Mphela struck deep into stoppage time as South Africa snatched a 1-0 home victory over Egypt to dent the Pharaohs’ hopes of reaching next year’s ACN finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Mphela capitalised on a rare defensive blunder to score against the run of play and break Egypt’s heart as South Africa is now on the verge of booking their place in the biennial tournament.

The Bafana Bafana top Group G with seven points, six clear of Egypt who lay at the bottom with three matches remaining.

The seven-time African champions, who adopted a cautious strategy in Ellis Park, risk the unthinkable prospect of missing out on the tournament they won in 2006, 2008 and 2010.

The leaders of the 11 groups and the best two second place teams will qualify for the ACN. Egypt will host South Africa in June.

Defensive line-up

Egypt coach Hassan Shehata fielded a defensive-minded line-up with the presence of three central midfielders in Hosni Abd-Rabou, Mohamed Shawky and Ahmed Fathi. Mohamed Zidan and Mohamed Abou-Treika surprisingly started on the bench.

Shehata’s strategy successfully kept South Africa forwards at bay in the first half, but left strike duo Al-Sayed Hamdi and Mahmoud Abdel-Razek ‘Shikabala’ isolated, a risky bet for Egypt.

South Africa relied on useless long balls which were easily cleared by a defence marshalled by the in-form Hossam Ghaly, a natural holding midfielder who has switched to the back since returning to Cairo giants Ahly last summer.

Egypt’s sole chance before the break fell to central defender Mahmoud Fathallah, who headed a corner just over the bar from nine yards in the 32^nd minute.

The visitors came out with all guns blazing in the second half, laying siege to South Africa’s area and wasting a couple of decent opportunities.

A curling free-kick by Abd-Rabou went just wide of the post while Shikabala failed to control an inviting cross from Ahmed Fathi from seven yards out.

Shehata introduced forward Mohamed Nagy ‘Gedo’ instead of Abd-Rabou to inject zeal upfront. The substitution bore fruit as Egypt piled on pressure and was unlucky enough not to break the deadlock even up to 13 minutes remaining.

A corner eluded a host of South African defenders and fell kindly for Shawky, who placed the ball wide with the goal at his mercy.

South Africa briefly threatened Egypt when keeper Essam El-Hadary made two brilliant saves in quick succession to thwart efforts from Katlego Mphela and Anele Ngcongca.

Zidan and Abou-Treika were introduced in the latter stages but did not have sufficient time to make a difference.

It was South Africa who made the breakthrough, three minutes into additional time when Mphela outpaced his marker Wael Gomaa to latch onto a deft through ball and fire a powerful low shot into the bottom corner of the net.