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Baxter: South Africa will try to stop Eagles from playing

Bafana Bafana of South Africa head coach, Stuart Baxter has stated that he has no intentions to make plans for Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi and others in the Super Eagles team that could pose problems ahead of Wednesday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final tie in Cairo.

stop Eagles

South Africa surprised themselves when they eliminated the host and AFCON favourites, Egypt in the second round and they are up against the Eagles whom Baxter has praised as among the best on the continent.

Baxter noted that he has the utmost respect for Nigeria but that he is not afraid of the Eagles and does not need to make any contingency plans for the some of the individual players in the Eagles.

He said despite some good individual players like Mohamed Sallah and others in the Egyptian national team, they were still able to beat the Pharaohs and that what they will do is to set up a formation which
will make it difficult for Nigeria to play their game.

“We will respect Nigeria but we are not afraid of them,” Baxter told journalists.

“We don’t make individual plans for players. We will try and make it difficult for them to play. We will try to cut football supply to the strikers too.

“We need to remain very humble. If you look back not so long time ago, we won’t be overconfidence against Nigeria. Nigeria is still one of the powerhouses on the continent.

“They are doing very well. We shouldn’t be under any illusion that Nigeria is one of the best team in Africa with a very good squad team.

It will be a massively difficult game for us. we must be mentally ready for the game.

“The last time we played against Nigeria, we had six of our regular players missing in the 1-1 game. When we went to play against Nigeria in 2017, they had the strongest players available as at the time.

“I also went with the strongest players available too. I don’t think he went into that game to lose. He wanted to beat us because it was the first game of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. I don’t get involved in this mind game.

Read Also: South Africa’s Williams beckons on Bafana fans to support the team

“We will do everything to win. This is not about a personal battle between Baxter and Nigeria it is between South Africa versus Nigeria. Past results won’t play any part in the quarter-final game.”

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