Bafana Bafana of South Africa is having sleepless nights over the proposed Nations Cup qualifier against Nigeria’s Super Eagles.
South Africa coach, Stuart Baxter, has been going around in search of valuable information on Nigerian players expected to play the match in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state on June 10. Information has it that Baxter, who is into his second spell as coach of the South African senior side, has already started making plans to neutralise Nigeria as he has been studying the tapes of Nigerian stars abroad.
The likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi and Victor Moses got special mention from the Bafana coach, who also revealed he has been reading Nigerian newspapers to get a feel for how they are thinking.
Baxter wants to take a look at Nigeria’s last three games and break it down to give him an idea of how the Super Eagles will set up for the clash. Nigeria have been a bogey team for South Africa as Bafana have only defeated Nigeria once in competitive games.
The last time the two teams met, Nigeria forced South Africa to a 2-2 draw in Uyo in a 2015 Afcon qualifier. Baxter will look to change all that as he begins his second stint with Bafana. He is looking at combining both youth and experience as he continues to develop the squad.
“We want to keep an element of development there all the time, and I don’t want to regress. We are going to have to look at players that have come in and ask if we should throw them in the deep end in Nigeria or should he be on the bench, or just in the squad and have a learning curve,” Baxter was quoted by a foreign media.
“I think those that are going to have to play are the ones that have been there and done it, but I don’t’ mean we suddenly start bringing back Morgan Gould (34), although he’s been fantastic, but we need players with experience, like Dean Furman for example and Itumeleng Khune will also be important in these sort of games.” he added.
Apart from surmounting the Nigerian hurdle, South Africa will also have to do battle with other 2019 AFCON group E opponents Seychelles and Libya.
