Bloemfontein — South Africa recorded a first ever win over a major football playing nation to restore some pride but are still out of the World Cup despite beating the might of France.

The 2-1 triumph over the 1998 World Cup winners at the Free State Stadium was enough to give them four points in the standings, but they finished
third behind Mexico on goal difference. It was always going to need a miraculous comeback for Bafana Bafana to avoid becoming the first World Cup host eliminated in the first round.

But there were times on Tuesday afternoon when it seemed that might well be possible. In the end, a lack of firepower proved their undoing, even though they played with two strikers for the first time in the tournament.

It is also doubtful they would have won the game had it not been for the sending off of Yoann Gourcuff, who got his marching orders after just 25 minutes for an elbow in the face of MacBeth Sibaya that seemed somewhat harsh.

That allowed South Africa to take control of the game and go in search of the goals they needed to run around the tie. France were already a listless outfit, their weekend refusal to practice in protest at the sending home of Nicolas Anelka all too apparent in their body language and application.

An elementary mistake by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris allowed Bongani Khumalo to score his first international goal and put South Africa ahead after 20 minutes. That was doubled by Katlego Mphela 17 minutes later, again courtesy of some uncharacteristically sloppy defending.

But there were no more goals from South Africa in the second half despite several chances, with Lloris making up for his earlier error with some fine stops, while Mphela shaved the woodwork with an effort that he should have put away.

The home side, cheered on by almost capacity crowd, tired later on in the game and gave away a goal because of yet another defensive blooper, ultimately their undoing at the tournament.