Solape Lawal-Solarin
Banana Bafana’s coach Stuart Baxter rues the draw with Nigeria because “ we failed to play with freedom and punish the Eagles.”
The former Kaizer Chiefs boss needed a win to guarantee South Africa’s passage to Cameroon but, were denied by an impressive and formidable Eagles in a thrilling 1-1 draw.
The result favoured the visitors as they booked their flight to Cameroon with a game in hand, leaving Baxter and his troops staring down at a crunch make-or-break clash with Libya away, who dismantled Seychelles 8-1 to rekindle their AFCON hopes.
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But, the coach is not giving up, vowing to fight on in his post match interview.
“I’m disappointed in the result. We were not brave enough, we simply failed to punish them. In the last 15 minutes, they were tiring out, I had expected my boys to play the ball around, wear them out and then run through the spaces instead, we were going long. Trying to play the ball behind their back line. I felt we could have punished them but, we didn’t. Anyways, we’ll fight on. We have to fight it out against Libya,” he vowed.