Nigeria vs South Africa: Prediction, head-to-head, scores and TV stream

The madness of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations continues on Wednesday. As do the mind games.

Get live scores for 2019 Afcon – Nigeria vs South Africa – here!

This time, South Africa’s Stuart Baxter is at the receiving end, but he’s not falling for it. Bafana Bafana stunned everyone by beating Egypt in the last 16 and now they have a chance to spring another surprise when they take on Nigeria in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Ahead of that incredible win over Egypt, Baxter talked up the “national disaster” beating the hosts would result in. This time, his Nigeria counterpart Gernot Rohr suggested that his side are the favourites heading into Wednesday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final showdown.

Nigeria’s run has been somewhat unpredictable. This is a team that eliminated defending champions Cameroon in the last round, but also lost to Madagascar.

“Nigeria are absolutely one of the best teams on continent and have been for a long time. One game doesn’t make us favourites. I don’t think he’s (Rohr) fooling anybody,” Baxter told reporters Tuesday.

“When we hit a balance between good organisation and getting on the ball and playing with pace and using our natural inherent technique we can give anybody a game.

“We’ll be respecting Nigeria but not fearing them. We will have to produce a very good South Africa performance to beat them.”

The two are teams are familiar opponents as South Africa and Nigeria were paired together in qualifying. Baxter oversaw a 2-0 away win in Uyo at the start of the campaign before a 1-1 draw in Johannesburg.

South Africa’s shock 1-0 defeat of Egypt was played in front of a capacity 75 000 crowd at Cairo International Stadium, and although a much lower attendance is anticipated at the same venue Wednesday, Baxter doesn’t believe that will have an impact on his players.

“Dare I say the crowds in South Africa for some international matches are quite sparse as well,” he said. “The players were inspired by the crowd the other evening, but I hope they don’t need that sort of crowd to find that sort of inspiration.

“This is special now, you’re getting to the sharp end of the stick and it’s people that think like winners who will end up winning to tournament.

“I think we know we’ve got a tough opponent. I think we know we’ve got to be completely focused and I think we understand that it is going to take all the mental energy we can muster and not be dependent on getting up because the crowd is up.”

Prediction, head-to-head and TV stream

Prediction

A neat and tidy 50% win prediction for Nigeria here, with 20% suggesting another Bafana shock and 30% pointing towards extra time and, who knows, perhaps the lottery of penalties.

Head-to-head

Nigeria have won six of the 13 competitive fixtures between these two. Bafana have taken the spoils twice with five draws to throw into the bargain.

What time and where to watch

Kick off is at 21:00 SAST.

In Africa, SuperSport 4 will broadcast the quarter-final fixtures.

Elsewhere: Eurosport Player (UK) and beIN Sports Connect (U.S.).

Live scores

Additional reporting by AFP.