Bafana Bafana: Stuart Baxter relishes opportunity to upset Egypt

Bafana Bafana are seen as rank no-hopers ahead of their Afcon second round clash against hosts Egypt, but coach Stuart Baxter is not too unhappy about his side’s “underdog” billing.

Baxter’s charges plodded their way to a third-place finish in Group D, scoring just once, which proved enough to progress to the knockout round, with 16 out of the 24 participants going through.

Now with the Pharaohs lying in wait, the wide expectation is that Saturday’s date at the Cairo International Stadium will be the end of the road for the South Africans, who are yet to give a convincing display three matches into the competition.

However, the Brit is adamant that a big performance is on the cards, and the players are also on board in terms of believing they can upset the apple cart.

Bafana eye big Egyptian scalp

Addressing the media on Thursday, he gave a strong indication that he could ditch the conservative approach that has characterised Bafana’s campaign up to this point.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in our dressing room who is expecting Egypt to win.

“We’ve played Ivory Coast‚ Morocco‚ Nigeria‚ Senegal. And every one of those games could have gone the other way. That doesn’t make you feel hopeless.

“I think the players partly feel‚ ‘We can play better than we have’‚ and partly‚ ‘But it was still close’.

“So we know that this is about squeezing a bit more out. And maybe this tournament is a big thing for a few of the players. And maybe they have been a bit nervous no matter what we say to them.

“But that’s got to go out the window‚ because this is a great opportunity to upset the apple cart.

“And maybe we can’t. But I don’t want to go away from the game feeling that we never really pitched up. A close game‚ but we lost.

“You know‚ if we’re going to get beat‚ let’s get beat with then flag high‚ not going there apologising.”

Stuart Baxter

Bafana finished the group stage with one win and two defeats, as they beat Namibia in between losses to Ivory Coast and Morocco.

They face an Egyptian side that has netted five times in their three matches, while yet to concede a goal.

Saturday’s match is also the first competitive meeting between the two sides since the Afcon qualifiers for the 2012 tournament, where Bafana triumph in the one encounter that produced a result – beating the Pharaohs 1-0 before a goalless draw in the away leg.

Kick off on Saturday is at 21:00 (SAST).