Bafana Bafana will not feature at the 2018 African Nations Championship, after succumbing to a 4-2 aggregate defeat against Zambia on Saturday afternoon.

Thabo Senong led the South African outfit in the absence of Stuart Baxter, with his side looking to make amends for throwing away a two-goal lead in the first leg of the tie.

Zambia should have broken the deadlock with the first opportunity of the game in the opening exchanges, but Bongi Ntuli squandered his effort with the goalkeeper to beat.

Chipolopolo gradually found their feet and Festus Mbewe came close to opening the scoring, but his header went inches wide of Bruce Bvuma’s goal.

The home side dominated proceedings and were unfortunate not to have scored, as the two sides went into the half-time break deadlocked.

South Africa upped their efforts in search of a goal in the second half, but were left frustrated by a mixture of good defending by the Zambians and wastefulness on their own behalf.

Senong brought on youngster Jamie Webber for Dumisani Zuma in the 73rd minute as they upped their efforts in search of a goal, but it was the Zambian outfit who would find the back of the net first, as Justin Shonga beat the offside trap and slotted home to give his side the lead in the 80th minute.

Shonga netted his brace three minutes later to completely shock the South African side, who will not feature at next year’s Chan competition.

Photo: Safa.net

– This story originally appeared on SportsClub.co.za