Bafana Bafana of South Africa head coach, Stuart Baxter said the thought of qualifying for the nations cup in Cameroon is enough motivation for his boys to beat Nigeria in the November 17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between both nations at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg.
The former Keizer Chiefs coach said he has confidence in the current crop of players listed to play the Super Eagles “Being confident is that the players I work with, I know they desire greatly to qualify; they know that Nigeria are a top class team. The players know that they have to get rid of them for us to go where we want to go. So I believe the players will not have a problem of not wanting it enough and not able to balance their mental attitude towards the game.”
The South African team will be without some key players due to injury with the recent addition being Brentford’s defensive midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo, others are SuperSport midfielder Dean Furman, SC Amiens of France midfielder Bongani Zungu, Montpellier midfielder Keegan Dolly, Mamelodi Sundowns attacking midfielder Sibusiso Vilakazi and SuperSport striker Bradley Grobler but Baxter says he is unfazed by these challenges.
“It doesn’t matter if we got a lot of injuries. I’ll love to have some of the players in the game but they are not available so we’ll have to get on with it. I think the players we have now understand their roles and will quickly make sure that they give a worthy performance.”
Baxter insists the match can swing in any ones favor but he is certain his boys have the right mentality to see off the Super Eagles. “It takes one second to score a goal so we have to have the patience, the application and the focus. All what I’m saying is that I believe this squad is able to do that. So as the national team coach, if I’m able to do that, and they get on board, then I think we can win the game.”
Nigeria will also miss the services goalkeeper Francis Uzoho who is out for four weeks and combative midfielder Wilfred Ndidi due to accumulated cautions.
