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Cape Town - A crowd of around 10 000 gathered inside Cape Town Stadium with an hour to go before Bafana Bafana's crucial clash with Nigeria in the final round of group A fixtures in the African Nations Championship on Sunday evening.
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The stadium, though, was expected to reach its capacity by the time the teams ran out onto the pitch for their 19:00 kick-off, with an additional 30 000 fans set to fill the arena.
In the other group A fixture, which is played simultaneously at Athlone Stadium, Mali will look to extend their unbeaten run in the competition to three games, having claimed a win and a draw from their two group games thus far.
Bafana opened their campaign with a dominant 3-1 win over Mozambique last Saturday, before the hosts were held to a 1-1 draw by Mali four days later, in a game where progression would have been guaranteed with a victory.
Wednesday's stalemate means Bafana must avoid defeat, with a draw enough to see them safely through to the next round, while a victory would keep them in contention to qualify as winners of the group.
Nigeria will be knocked out of the tournament if they lose, but are still in with a mathematical chance of progression should they draw.
They will, however, need Mozambique to beat Mali.
Mozambique became the first team to be booted out of the event and will playing for pride.
South Africa team:
Moeneeb Josephs, Vuyo Mere, Thabo Nthethe (captain), Tefu Mashamaite, Tebogo Langerman, Hlompho Kekana, Matthew Pattison, Sibusiso Vilakazi, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Lindokuhle Mbatha, Bernard Parker.
