Cameroon were their first opponents as they won 1-0 on a rainy night in Durban in 1992, while South Sudan were their latest new opponent in an AFCON qualifier in 2024.

They have won 32 of those 49 ‘debut’ matches against new African opponents, drawing seven and losing 10, giving them victory 65% of the time.

Bafana Bafana have scored 74 goals in those 49 games and conceded 40, keeping clean sheets on 25 occasions, or a little over half the time. They have failed to score in 10 of those games.

The most common first-meeting score is 1-0 to South Africa, which has happened 10 times, while overall they have won by a single goal 17 times, by two goals nine times and by three goals six times.

Their heaviest defeat in a first meeting was 4-0 away to Nigeria in October 1992, with a 4-1 loss to Zimbabwe two months earlier next on the list. No wonder in those days they were called the ‘4x4s’.

In first meetings away from home they have been less convincing, though understandably so, with a record of P23 W13 D1 L9. At home it is much better: P26 W19 D6 L1.

The only draw among those 23 first meetings outside South Africa was the 1-1 stalemate with Tanzania in October 2002, while the only team to beat them at home the first time they met was Zambia, who claimed a 1-0 success in 1992.

South Africa previously had an extraordinary sequence of 15 successive first meetings with new African opponents without defeat, from Congo in October 1992 through to DR Congo in November 1996, which included 13 wins and two draws.

The 48th new team Bafana faced were also the last to beat them in a first meeting, as they slipped to a 2-0 loss to Rwanda on a poor artificial pitch away from home in a World Cup qualifier in 2023.

The only three African teams Bafana have yet to face are Djibouti, Somalia and Togo.