David Moyes dismissed the idea of the FA Cup being the best cup competition in the world as “quite ridiculous” following West Ham’s exit at Bristol City.
The Hammers lost their third-round replay 1-0 after Said Benrahma was sent off for reacting foolishly to Joe Williams’ 51st-minute challenge.
VAR was not in operation at Ashton Gate even though it had been used in the original tie at the London Stadium nine days earlier, which finished 1-1.
Although Moyes felt Darren England made the right decision to send off Benrahma, the Scot was unhappy over Williams’ tackle on the Algerian as well as one or two other incidents in the game.
Hammers boss Moyes said: “It’s incredible they call it the best cup competition in the world. Yet one week you have VAR, one week you don’t.
“I find it quite ridiculous they try to claim that, but it’s not level for every club.
“If we’re not having VAR we shouldn’t have it in the tournament at all. If we’re going to have it, then have it everywhere.”
West Ham were trailing to Tommy Conway’s third-minute goal when Benrahma was banished at the start of the second half.
“It made it much more difficult, that’s for sure,” Moyes said about trying to engineer a recovery.
“I’ve had a look at it and I don’t think we can have any complaints. I don’t think his reaction was correct. It was a sending-off.
“I wasn’t sure about the tackle on him. That might have been questionable. I thought in game-time it was a pretty hefty challenge.
“I’m not sure the referee moved in quick enough to deal with the first challenge, which allowed something else to happen. There was one on Danny Ings as well that was not the best either.”
On the defeat, Moyes added: “We should have won the game at London Stadium and done the job better.
“That’s what happens in the cup competitions – if you’re not quite on it, or maybe not at your best, you can find yourself knocked out.”
Bristol City, 14th in the Sky Bet Championship, seized their opportunity against opponents who were without Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Michail Antonio and Mohammed Kudus for various reasons.
Robins boss Liam Manning said: “Across the two legs the performance level was really high.
“We got off to a great start which always helps, but there’s a real danger when you’re one ahead to try and protect that lead.
“But we showed a real bravery to try and play and press. We tried to stay on the front foot and I thought we were excellent.
“I was really proud of the lads because we maintained that level of focus you need against opposition like that.”
Bristol City will be at home to either Blackpool or Nottingham Forest in round four.
Birmingham manager Tony Mowbray said his substitutions changed the game after his side’s late FA Cup replay 2-1 win over Hull.
Mowbray made five changes just after the hour-mark and the substitutes made an immediate impact.
Jay Stansfield equalised in the 66th minute after Jason Lokilo had opened the scoring with his first Hull goal after 12 minutes.
Another of Mowbray’s substitutes, Koji Miyoshi, scored the winner in stoppage time to set up a fourth-round tie at Leicester.
“The substitutions undoubtedly changed the game with the quality they brought,” said Mowbray.
“My intention was always to provide energy so I was always going to make substitutions. The supporters will get used to that.
“Modern day football is why you have to have a squad, you don’t weaken your team by making substitutions, you freshen it up.
“You make sure the lads who aren’t starting know they have an important part to play in the match.
“You have to love the players and trust them, they have to know the gaffer’s on their side. You can’t just have 11, everyone has to be part of the team.”
“The lads who came on brought how we want to play and what we want to do, they got their rewards.”
Mowbray praised his side’s determination to win the game in stoppage time.
“There were lots of positives from the game and we got the job done,” he said.
“That’s two games on the bounce where we’ve got something late on.
“I saw a message at the training ground, ‘Keep Right On’ and that’s what we’ll do.
“We’ll go right to the end and see if we can get the benefits.”
Mowbray says Fulham can recall Stansfield from his loan at St Andrew’s, but feels the player wants to stay. Stansfield scored one and assisted the winner.
“There is a small, tight window for Fulham to recall him,” said Mowbray. “It hasn’t closed, but I get on well with Marco Silva and he’d tell me if there were any issues.
“I think the kid loves it here when I look him in the eye, there are other interested parties but I think he wants to stay, score goals and progress his career. He’s in a good place here.”
Hull manager Liam Rosenior says it is time his side stopped receiving praise for their performance without getting the result.
“I was proud of the young players and their performance. But we ran out of legs.
“I have to be so careful at the moment as we have injuries coming out of our ears and two players on AFCON duty,” said Rosenior.
“We also have an important game against Sunderland coming up on Friday.
“I have to manage the squad in the right way. We couldn’t fill the bench here. But, yet again, we’ve somehow managed to throw away a comfortable position and lose the game.
“It’s hard, I’m frustrated. I’m sick and tired of coming in after the game and saying ‘Well done, the performance was great, but we didn’t get the rewards’.
“This has to be the last time. It’s a watershed moment in our season, this result has summed up a lot of our games.
“But I don’t throw players under the bus, but we have to knuckle down. We’ll come through this.”
Boss Gary O’Neil insisted Wolves must maintain their focus after booking an FA Cup Black Country derby against West Brom.
Matheus Cunha’s penalty saw off Brentford 3-2 after extra time on Tuesday and sent Wolves into the fourth round.
Nelson Semedo and Nathan Fraser twice hit back for the hosts after goals from Nathan Collins and Neal Maupay in an entertaining replay.
Wolves now go to The Hawthorns on January 28 for the first Black Country derby in three years – and first with fans in attendance since 2012.
“As soon as we walked off I was thinking about Brighton (in the Premier League). I understand fans will be excited, it will be a big atmosphere, it hasn’t been played with fans for a while,” O’Neil said.
“I can’t wait to lead the team down there and see if we can progress again. There’s a Premier League game coming up and I have a very small tired group to do some work with before we go to Brighton.
“I have mixed feelings about the performance but I’m delighted with the win. The lads have worked unbelievably hard over the two ties. We’ve talked about taking the FA Cup seriously, we went down to 10 men at Brentford and tonight got a bit awkward for us.
“The players deserve credit for how they have approached the whole tie. We gave Brentford a bit of a lift by giving them two crazy goals.”
Collins, who joined Brentford from Wolves for £23million in the summer, opened the scoring after 13 minutes when he prodded in after Kristoffer Ajer’s shot was saved.
Semedo and Pablo Sarabia went close before Semedo levelled after 36 minutes when he tapped in after Thomas Strakosha saved his initial header.
Back came Brentford, though, and Maupay restored their lead six minutes into the second half after a VAR check for offside.
Yet Wolves equalised again with 17 minutes left, Fraser drilling into the corner three minutes after coming on.
It set up extra time and Shandon Baptiste had a shot turned on to the post by Jose Sa before Cunha won it in stoppage time of the first period when Pedro Neto was tripped in the box.
Brentford will now have Ivan Toney available when his eight-month suspension for betting breaches ends on Wednesday.
Boss Thomas Frank said: “It’s massive, no doubt. It’s like signing a Premier League striker who can score 20 goals because he’s proved it.
“Every team would be happy to sign a quality player like him. Ivan is a top player but he’s also very good at making the whole team better.
“Tonight we did a lot of things right. The first half was a bit direct from our side. I was very pleased with the second half and in extra time. In general we put a lot of effort into the game and we could have won.
“The game was decided by a penalty which, in my opinion, is not there. Ben (Mee) clearly hit the ball into Neto’s feet. It’s difficult to make a call but unfortunately I can’t alter that.”
Neill Collins praised the character of his Barnsley side as they came from behind to beat Carlisle 2-1.
Luke Armstrong put the visitors ahead after a strong start, before Devante Cole levelled and Herbie Kane grabbed the winner with a spot-kick.
Collins said: “I didn’t expect that level of performance. I don’t know the exact reasons for it, other than we’ve just had too many (players) on an off night all at once.
“It’s quite clear there were a lot of individual errors out there, they were pretty basic.
“I think tonight it was more just technical mistakes or decision making and I think we got punished for it, could’ve been punished more for it.
“Ultimately the players just dug in, we got to half-time and we were able to freshen it up.
“We scored a fantastic goal to get ourselves back level and then obviously went on and won it.
“We’ll probably have to try and learn a couple of lessons and move on.
“We managed to get to half time at 1-0 which I thought was important and then in the second half I thought we started to get a bit more quality in our play.
“The players showed a lot of good character to keep at it, to keep together. It’s very easy when you’re having a night like that to just compound it and end up in a complete disaster.
“The fans should be pleased they kept at it.”
Carlisle manager Paul Simpson felt the result was harsh on his team.
He said: “We deserved something out of that game tonight.
“People can say we didn’t finish our chances again and that’s a big part of it because in the first 13 minutes we’ve probably had four incredible chances.
“You have to take one of them, one’s got to go in.
“We had a plan of how we wanted to try and press them, very similar to Oxford at the weekend.
“I thought we won the ball well in good areas and we had a good shape about us.
“But with the chances (Daniel) Butterworth’s had in the first half, you have to take one of them, it’s simple as that.
“Massively disappointing but the pleasing thing is – and the thing I’ve said to the players in there – there’s been times where we’ve actually deserved nothing out of games.
“That tonight can give us a lot of belief, a lot of confidence. But the challenge is, we have to do it every game.
“That’s the base because it hasn’t been the base for some games. That’s a choice that players have to make.
“I’m really pleased with what they’ve done tonight but I’m absolutely gutted for them that we haven’t got the rewards that we probably deserved.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan continued his winning form at the World Grand Prix after Ali Carter had earlier continued the pair’s bitter war of words by saying he does not think the world number one is “that well mentally”.
O’Sullivan was back in action 48 hours after beating Carter in Sunday’s Masters final, where both men carried on a long-standing feud.
The world number one, who was a 4-2 victor over Pang Junxu in Leicester, is under review by the World Snooker Tour after he described Carter as “a f****** nightmare” and said he needs to “see a counsellor” after beating his fierce rival.
The 48-year-old was hitting back at Carter, who claimed the seven-time world champion had “snotted on the floor” during their match at Alexandra Palace, which O’Sullivan won 10-7.
Both men are in action at the Morningside Arena this week and Carter went back on the offensive ahead of his 4-3 win over Wu Yize, telling ITV4: “Ronnie is entitled to his opinion. I just said what it is and how it was and I talk facts. It is as simple as that.”
Asked whether he was angry at O’Sullivan’s comments, he said: “Angry about what? It makes no difference to me what he says. He says different things on different days. I don’t think he even knows what is going to come out of his mouth at certain times.
“I actually feel a bit sorry for him. I don’t think he is that well, mentally. So we move forward and we go again this week.”
O’Sullivan caused a stir when told several newspapers: “He needs to sort his f****** life out. I’m not going to skirt around it any more, tip-toeing on eggshells around someone like that. He’s a f****** nightmare.
“Playing snooker against someone like that is a nightmare. He’s not a nice person. It’s not a nice vibe he leaves around the table.
“I’ve said my piece, I don’t give a s***. I’ve said it now, done. You know what he’s like, everybody knows what he’s like.
“He’s got issues. F****** why has he got issues with me? I’m not having it.”
O’Sullivan admitted he should have withdrawn from the event in Leicester and said the only reason is still playing tournaments is to keep his tour card.
He said on ITV after his win against the Chinese: “I will definitely be missing a few tournaments after this, I shouldn’t even really have come here to be honest, but it is alright so I thought I would just turn up. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have come.
“The main thing for me now is exhibitions, I am contracted to 25 a year so I have got to make time for them, I have 25-30 days with my sponsors, that’s two months where it is important stuff for me.
“I just play and perform to make me get my cue out of the case basically, if I didn’t have tournaments I wouldn’t play.
“I would like to think if I fell off the tour I might get a wild card but knowing World Snooker they would probably say no. I am just trying to keep my tour card really, that’s all I am trying to do.
“I am not bothered about tournaments, it is not my favourite bit to be fair.”
Philippe Clement insists he will not be left short in the left-back position for the season’s run-in amid speculation about Ridvan Yilmaz’s future.
Reports claim the Ibrox club rejected a loan-to-buy offer in the region of €4m (£3.4million) from Galatasaray for the 22-year-old Turkey international, who has also been linked with Hellas Verona.
The Light Blues’ other left-back, fit-again Borna Barisic, is out of contract at the end of the season.
Speaking after the 2-2 friendly draw with FC Copenhagen at Ibrox – where goals from Rabbi Matondo and Cyriel Dessers was cancelled by a Kevin Diks header and a Johnly Yfeko own goal – the Rangers boss addressed the speculation about Yilmaz.
Clement also revealed that the injury midfielder Kieran Dowell picked up in the club’s January training camp in Spain is set to keep him out for two months.
Clement said: “For every player at Rangers, if there comes an offer that cannot be refused or is a good thing for the club then we need to discuss it.
“At the moment that is not the case. Ridvan is here and he started the game.
“We will see. Players also need to show they really want to be here in the next couple of months.
“We need to be prepared for everything, for every position also and make sure that we have solutions.
“That is one position that we have two players. One is end of contract, the other one there is a lot of rumours around.
“So it is clear that we need to be ready for that position. We cannot go on in three competitions with one left full-back. That is correct. And in other positions it is the same.”
Clement was pleased to see Ryan Jack, Tom Lawrence and Barisic get some game time in the second half against the Danish side after recovering from their respective injuries but Dowell is a concern.
The midfielder has made just 11 appearances for the Light Blues since joining on a free transfer from Norwich this summer.
Ahead of the Scottish Cup tie against Dumbarton on Saturday, Clement said: “Kieran Dowell was not here because he got injured in La Manga.
“He will be out for several weeks, I think around two months.
“That’s long term and that’s a big blow.”
Dusan Vlahovic scored twice to help Juventus cut the gap behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan to two points with a 3-0 win at home to Sassuolo.
The Serbian netted his first after 15 minutes when he curled a superb effort into the top corner from 25 yards beyond goalkeeper Andrea Consigli.
And it was 2-0 minutes before half-time, Vlahovic sending a free-kick in off the crossbar as Max Allegri’s team made light work of dispatching 14th-place Sassuolo.
It takes the 23-year-old’s tally to nine goals this season and three in his last two league games, after he netted a stoppage-time winner against bottom side Salernitana in the previous game.
Substitute Federico Chiesa added a third in the closing minutes as Juve stretched their winning run in the league to four games.
Domenico Berardi had a chance to cut the arrears in the second half but failed to beat Wojciech Szczesny, as the visitors otherwise put up little resistance after falling two behind.
It was an 11th victory for Juve in their last 13 games and means they remain within striking distance of Inter in the title race.
The two are due to meet at San Siro on February 4, but before that Juve must navigate games against Lecce and Empoli to ensure they keep on Inter’s coat tails ahead of the showdown in Milan.
Luton boss Rob Edwards believes his side will benefit from facing Premier League opponents in the next round of the FA Cup after making life difficult for themselves before overcoming League One Bolton 2-1 in Tuesday night’s third round replay.
Having been held to a goalless draw at Kenilworth Road nine days ago, Luton fell behind to Dion Charles’ 11th minute strike at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
But Tahith Chong swiftly equalised before Chiedozie Ogbene’s second-half goal set up a tie against the winners of Wednesday’s replay between Everton and Crystal Palace.
Luton avoided the upset but Edwards admitted his side had let their standards drop when facing lower league opposition.
“Tonight was all about winning,” Edwards said. “We weren’t at our best. We were a little bit sloppy in too many moments and probably allowed them to build and grow in the game a little bit.
“Credit to them, there was a little bit of sloppiness but overall I’m very, very pleased that we’re through.”
“I think in a way it’s better for us to play a Premier League team in the next round, we know we’re going to have to be full tilt. We dropped in the last two games and we can’t do that, we’ll get punished.
“Bolton are a big, big football club. But when we’re favourites I think we’ve taken our foot off the gas in certain moments and we can’t do that. We’re not good enough to do that.”
Bolton, two points off the top of League One with three games in hand, played with confidence and had chances to retake the lead before Ogbene struck, while also having a second-half strike from Charles ruled out for offside.
“It was a difficult night,” Edwards added. “It’s cup football and it was never going to be easy. They’re playing very well, they’re used to winning.
“It’s a cold night, snowing, the recipe is there for an upset, or for us to go out. I’m really pleased we found a way to equalise quickly.”
Before kick-off there was a minute’s silence in memory of Iain Purslow, the 71-year-old Bolton supporter who died after being taken ill during Saturday’s League One match against Cheltenham, which was abandoned midway through the first half.
“I’m proud of the club and I’m proud of my team,” Bolton manager Ian Evatt said. “We wanted to pay him respect and to pay the family respect.
“It’s not about how we feel. It’s all about the family and their feelings. Hopefully now they get the time to mourn. We’ve paid our respects and I think they just need peace and quiet to come to terms with a really sad loss.
“I thought we started the game very fast and very well and got ourselves in front. Against Premier League opposition if you make mistakes you get punished and we made a couple tonight and they were punished. We would have liked to be in the lead a little bit longer and to stabilise it.
“In the second half I thought the team were outstanding for large spells and dominated against a very good team. I’ve watched a lot of Luton, they cause teams problems and tonight we caused them problems.
“It’s about trying to replicate that for the rest of the season and if we do that we’ll achieve our ambitions.”
Newport set up a fairytale tie with Manchester United with a 3-1 FA Cup third-round win at non-league Eastleigh.
Goals from James Clarke and Will Evans sent the Welsh side through after Paul McCallum briefly levelled for the fifth-tier Spitfires following Aaron Wildig’s early opener.
The Exiles will host 12-time cup winners United at Rodney Parade on January 28.
There was a shock at Ashton Gate where Championship club Bristol City overcame 10-man West Ham 1-0.
Tommy Conway, who earned the Robins a replay with the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at the London Stadium on January 7, claimed the early winner after capitalising on a defensive mistake.
A disappointing evening for the Premier League Hammers was compounded by Said Benrahma’s 51st-minute red card, with City going on to host either Nottingham Forest or Blackpool.
Matheus Cunha struck an extra-time winner from the penalty spot as Wolves progressed to a Black Country derby at West Brom by twice coming from behind to beat Brentford 3-2.
Ex-Wanderers defender Nathan Collins gave the Bees a 13th-minute lead at Molineux before Nelson Semedo levelled.
Neal Maupay restored Brentford’s advantage only for Nathan Fraser to force an additional 30 minutes, which was decided by Cunha’s spot-kick following Shandon Baptiste’s foul on Pedro Neto.
Luton avoided an upset by hitting back to beat Bolton 2-1.
Dion Charles gave the League One Trotters an 11th-minute advantage but the top-flight visitors overturned the deficit thanks to Tahith Chong and Chiedozie Ogbene to earn a trip to either Crystal Palace or Everton.
In Tuesday evening’s other replay, Tony Mowbray registered his first win as Birmingham boss after a last-minute strike from substitute Koji Miyoshi secured a 2-1 success over Hull.
Jason Lokilo’s first Tigers goal edged his side ahead at St Andrew’s but Jay Stansfield levelled before Miyoshi’s dramatic finish earned Blues a trip to Championship rivals Leicester.
Wolves set up an FA Cup derby showdown with West Brom after a battling extra-time win over Brentford.
Matheus Cunha’s penalty sent Gary O’Neil’s side through to the fourth round as the hosts eventually sealed a 3-2 replay victory at Molineux.
Wolves hit back through Nelson Semedo and Nathan Fraser in normal time after Nathan Collins and Neal Maupay twice gave the visitors the lead.
But Cunha’s extra-time spot kick booked a Black Country derby at the Hawthorns, the first in three years, on January 28.
The Bees will be left with a blank weekend but will at least have Ivan Toney available having missed him during a barren winter, during which they have won once since the start of November.
The striker completes his eight-month ban for betting breaches on Wednesday.
The 1-1 draw in the initial tie ended a five-game losing streak for the Bees and confidence still looked low until they scored against the run of play after 13 minutes.
Wolves had been in the ascendancy but were caught when Kristoffer Ajer wriggled goalside of Matt Doherty.
His fierce effort was parried by Jose Sa but, when the ball was played back in, Maupay’s shot was blocked and Collins bundled the ball in from six yards.
It was part redemption for Collins who endured a nightmare against his former club in the Premier League last month, gifting them three goals in a 4-1 defeat.
It failed to deflate Wolves, though, and they went close to a leveller after half an hour.
Cunha cross found the unmarked Semedo and, with Thomas Strakosha stranded, the defender’s shot was blocked by Brentford’s massed ranks on the line.
The ball ran for Pablo Sarabia but he could only put his effort into the side netting.
Yet the hosts did not have to wait long for a leveller six minutes later when Semedo reached Cunha’s flighted cross, his header was parried by Strakosha but he had the easiest of tasks of tapping in the rebound.
It should have given Wolves the extra momentum but they were behind again six minutes after the break.
Keane Lewis-Potter’s cross caused problems on the edge of the box and when the ball ran to Maupay he smashed in high from eight yards. The striker was initially ruled offside but, after a two-minute VAR check, the goal was given.
Maupay has scored just four goals this season – and only five since February 2022 – with two coming against Wolves after his strike in the original game.
Brentford were dreaming of the fourth round, which they had only gone beyond once since 2006, and Mikkel Damsgaard curled a free kick at Sa.
But the tie continued to twist and Wolves levelled again with 18 minutes left when substitute Fraser, on for just three minutes, drilled into the corner.
A minute later the forward should have put the hosts ahead only for Strakosha to pull off a wonderful close-range stop.
From then extra time loomed and Sa turned Shandon Baptiste’s effort onto the post soon after the restart.
But Wolves snatched a deserved win in stoppage time of the first period when Cunha converted from the spot after Pedro Neto had been tripped.
A stoppage-time goal from Koji Miyoshi earned Birmingham a 2-1 win over Hull in their FA Cup third-round replay.
The result earned Tony Mowbray his first victory since taking over as manager at St Andrew’s following the sacking of Wayne Rooney.
Birmingham had to come back from a goal down to win the tie after Jason Lokilo’s first goal for Hull put them ahead after 12 minutes.
Mowbray made five substitutions just past the hour-mark and it was a move that changed the game.
Two of those substitutes scored, with Jay Stansfield equalising three minutes after coming on.
Both sides named differing line-ups for the tie, with Birmingham making seven changes from the weekend and Hull 11, presumably with Friday’s match against Sunderland in mind.
Birmingham threatened more in the opening minutes, with Keshi Anderson and Gary Gardner testing goalkeeper Matt Ingram.
However, it was Hull who opened the scoring in the 12th minute with a superbly executed move.
Billy Sharp, in his first start for Hull, made the most of a slip by Krystian Bielik and found James Furlong on the left. His cross was converted first time by Lokilo from eight yards.
The former Crystal Palace youngster made a summer move to Humberside from Dutch side Sparta Rotterdam.
Hull went in search of a second goal, but Greg Docherty’s long-range effort swung away from the target.
Birmingham sensed an equaliser and when Jordan James delivered a ball into the area, Romelle Donovan just failed to connect with it in front of goal.
Gardner’s overhead kick was met by Bielik six minutes before the break, but he headed wide of the target.
Blues goalkeeper John Ruddy kept his side’s deficit to one goal when he made an important save from Hull forward Tyrell Sellars-Fleming.
Jordan James responded for Mowbray’s side with an angled shot that flew just wide of the far post.
Mowbray’s raft of changes had an immediate effect as two substitutes combined to score the equaliser. Miyoshi’s shot was pushed out by Ingram, with Stansfield converting the rebound for his eighth goal of the season.
Siriki Dembele almost scored a second for Birmingham when he floated a long-range effort narrowly wide.
With extra-time looming, Miyoshi forced the ball home after being supplied by Stansfield to book a fourth-round trip to Leicester.
England are hopeful pace bowler Jofra Archer will be fit to play in this summer’s T20 World Cup.
The 28-year-old has not played professional cricket since a recurrence of an elbow injury at the Indian Premier League in May.
He has been plagued by injuries since bursting on to the international scene by helping England win the 50-over World Cup in 2019 before starring in that summer’s Ashes.
Archer did train with England during their white-ball tour of the Caribbean in December and Key is optimistic he can play a part in their T20 World Cup title defence.
“Our plan is the T20 World Cup, building him up slowly,” Key told the BBC’s Tailenders podcast.
“I saw him bowl in the Caribbean and it was like he’d never been away.
“I don’t want to get back to this thing where he plays and then goes down again.
“He wanted to play in the IPL, but we said not this time. Hopefully the years he has missed he can add to the end of his career. He is such a talent.”
England begin the T20 World Cup, which will be held in the West Indies and the United States, against Scotland in Barbados on June 4.
Hamari Traore and Lassine Sinayoko struck second-half goals as Mali launched their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 2-0 victory over South Africa.
Captain Traore tapped his side into a 60th-minute lead in the Group E encounter in Korhogo before striker Sinayoko quickly added a second.
South Africa had the better of the opening period but paid a heavy price for a penalty miss from former Brighton forward Percy Tau.
Following a relatively uneventful start to the match, the 1996 champions were handed a golden chance to edge ahead after Evidence Makgopa was caught in the face by the elbow of Sikou Niakate inside Mali’s box.
Egyptian referee Mohamed Edel pointed to the spot following VAR intervention, only for Tau to wastefully fire his 19th-minute effort high over the crossbar.
Tau, who left the Seagulls to join Egyptian club Al Ahly in 2021, was then twice denied by Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra as he sought to make amends.
Mali barely threatened in the opening period but nearly snatched the lead in added time when poor defending from Siyanda Xulu and Mothobi Mvala was almost punished by Auxerre forward Sinayoko.
RB Leipzig midfielder Amadou Haidara should have put 1972 runners-up Mali in front just four minutes into the second period but he somehow skied over after being slipped clear by Sekou Koita.
Eric Chelle’s side were far better after the restart and grabbed the lead with half an hour remaining.
Koita’s curling left-footed free-kick from the edge of the box was kept out by a combination of South Africa keeper Ronwen Williams and the bar but fell kindly for Real Sociedad defender Traore to poke home.
Sinayoko put the result beyond doubt only six minutes later, escaping Xulu to latch on to Kamory Doumbia’s through ball and jab beyond Bafana Bafana captain Williams.
South Africa never looked like salvaging anything from the game in the closing stages, albeit they did strike the left post through a speculative long-range free-kick deep into added time.
Wales boss Warren Gatland admits he has “no idea” if Louis Rees-Zammit will play rugby union again following his switch to American football.
While Wales prepare for a Guinness Six Nations opener against Scotland, Rees-Zammit will be concentrating on the NFL’s International Player Pathway in the hope of forging a gridiron career.
His move to the United States with immediate effect has left Wales and his club Gloucester without a box-office wing, whose try-scoring ability thrilled crowds on domestic, European and international stages.
Rees-Zammit’s rugby union career comes to a halt after winning 32 Wales caps and a World Cup campaign in France when he scored five tries.
Asked if the 22-year-old would come back to rugby one day, Gatland said: “No idea. There aren’t a lot of people who make it in the NFL who haven’t been brought up with the game and played it at a young age.
“There is probably not a lot of difference with rugby league players (trying to play union). Unless you have been brought up playing union, some are able to make it, but very few.
“So it is going to be a challenge for him, but good luck to him.
“We saw Christian Wade (ex-Wasps and England wing) do it, and if you look at rugby league, there was Jarryd Hayne from Australia who had a few games but wasn’t really able to crack it.
“Christian got quite close to doing it. He was a bit older, though. Louis sees it as an opportunity at his age, and if he doesn’t take that chance now it probably won’t come around again.
“We are disappointed to lose a talent like him, but we’ve just got to take that on the chin, move on and focus on the rest of the squad.
“The last thing I can do is dwell on losing him, because the focus has got to be on preparing the squad for the first game.”
Gatland believes that American football will see a player who is “a bit of a freak as an athlete” and someone who is still developing in the sporting arena.
“I thought he was outstanding in the World Cup,” Gatland added. “The pleasing thing for me was that he hardly missed a training session and he was playing well.
“He is probably a bit of a freak as an athlete. He is a freak physically and he gets a chance to challenge himself.
“He has obviously been a big fan (of the NFL) as a youngster and he has got a very high profile away from the game in terms of social media, so this probably helps him enhance that. I am not saying that is a negative at all.”
Another player who will not be part of Wales’ Six Nations squad is 21-year-old Exeter wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Cardiff-born Feyi-Waboso qualifies for Wales and England, but he is believed to have been involved in a recent England alignment camp organised by head coach Steve Borthwick.
He could now be named in Borthwick’s Six Nations squad, which is announced on Wednesday.
Gatland said: “I didn’t personally speak to him. Mike Forshaw (Wales defence coach) had a conversation with him and he had expressed that he wanted to go down the English route, so good luck to him with that.
“He has definitely got some talent, there is no doubt about it. He is as green as anything.
“He has obviously had an approach from England, and he has decided to take that path.”
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