Ten-man Bafana Bafana suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Cape Verde in their Group D encounter of the Fifa World Cup qualifier on Friday evening, writes DYLAN APPOLIS.

Stuart Baxter’s side came to the encounter off the back of a 2-1 victory over Senegal in their previous Group D clash, while Cape Verde suffered defeats in both their opening matches against Senegal and Burkina Faso respectively.

Bafana Bafana got off to a bright start and took the lead in the 14th minute when Tokelo Rantie beat his marker after the striker was picked out by Bongani Zungu, before slotting the ball into the net from 12 yards out to make it 1-0.

The home side eventually pulled a goal back in the 31st minute after Nuno Rocha’s deflected effort found the back of the net to level matters.

The Blue Sharks were then awarded a penalty seven minutes later after Ryan Mendes was brought down by Dean Furman. Rocha stepped up and made no mistake to find the net with his spot-kick to make it 2-1.

Baxter opted to make a change seven minutes into the second half when he introduced Bradley Grobler to replace Lebogang Manyama.

Bafana were then reduced to 10 men after 66 minutes when Eric Mathoho was shown a straight red card for a late challenge.

The home side came close to adding to their lead in the 73rd minute, but Bafana shot-stopper Ronwen Williams produced a fine save to deny the Blue Sharks.

Bafana pushed forward in search of an equalising goal and added to their attack by introducing Percy Tau to replace Rantie with 10 minutes left to play.

However, Cape Verde held on to their 2-1 lead to claim all three points.