- Friday June 28, 2019
- Al Salam stadium, Cairo K.O 10pm (11pm Local Time)
South Africa coach Stuart Baxter is wary of the threat posed by minnows Namibia ahead of the two team’s Afcon meeting on Friday.
The two Cosafa nations were narrow losers in their respective first games and are aware that any slip up will reduce their chances of a last 16 slot.
Baxter has called for respect against their opponents who put up a very good show against Morocco in the first game.
“Ivory Coast is the first game we have lost in one-and-half years and talking of dismantling Namibia is totally disrespectful towards a team that qualified for AFCON and ran Morocco very, very close,” he told the press.
Against Ivory Coast, Bafana Bafana strikers never showed up but Baxter expects better
“Yes, our strikers didn’t fire on the day and we didn’t create a lot of goal chances. Even then, Tyson (Thulani Hlatshwayo) had a good chance, Percy (Tau) went through and could have had a penalty. We had chances but they were not enough for us,” he said.
“The onus is on us to produce good football. If we play the way we are capable of, we can win the game but I will not come here and disrespect our opponents.
Stuart Baxter
Tau who urged teammates to get a few things right in the upcoming fixtures after defeat to Ivory Coast will be the key man in this tie as well as Themba Thwane.
South Africa are expected to miss the services of midfield Dean Furman through injury and the coach could hand Hlompho Kekana his first game in Egypt.
