Bafana Bafana have fallen to 72nd spot in the latest Fifa rankings, with the South African national team witnessing a second drop since the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Bafana, under then boss Stuart Baxter, performed admirably at the 2019 Afcon tournament held in Egypt in July as they made it to the quarter-finals before eventually losing 2-1 to Nigeria.

Bafana rose to 70th after the tournament, but have since dropped two places following Baxter’s resignation and the cancelled friendlies with Zambia and then Madagascar.

Molefi Ntseki got his tenure off with a winning start as goals from Dean Furman and Themba Zwane secured a Nelson Mandela Challenge win over Mali for the Baxter’s former assistant on his debut as head coach of the national team.

With Bafana playing only one match since the tournament they have been starved of the opportunity to pick up any ranking points, which has contributed to the fall to 72nd in the world.

Bafana, though, still remain in 13th place in Africa, flanked by Burkina Faso and the Cape Verde Islands.

The heat will increase for Ntseki and his team as they face Ghana and South Sudan in their Afcon 2021 qualifiers next month. They will certainly be aiming for victories to not only get their qualification campaign up and running, but earn some much-needed ranking points as well.