Bafana vow to up fight in Dakar

win over the Super Eagles in a 2019 African Nations Cup qualifier away from home in Uyo in June.

‘‘It creates such a good platform to move forward and of course in terms of prestige it is a big game.

‘‘It is also big for the players to throw down a marker and say ‘I wanna be involved in the national team. Look at me‚ don’t look at anywhere else’.”

Suffocating despondency has welled up inside since the defeat to Senegal and while the game itself is nothing more than an academic obligation‚ Baxter is well aware that another defeat to the Senegalese in the space of a few days would put his regime under considerable scrutiny.

The Briton is already under pressure as Bafana have not qualified for a Soccer World Cup since Carlos Queiroz managed the feat 15 years ago.

Baxter has managed to win only one World Cup qualifier – Bafana beat Burkina Faso 3-1 in Johannesburg last month – and the defeats to Cape Verde (twice) and to Senegal came at considerable cost.

They remain rooted to the bottom of the Group D table and Baxter hopes that a win in Dakar will be enough to secure a second-place finish behind the Senegalese.

‘‘So‚ and of course it is also important because as a group you also want to finish the highest possible position and no one knows what that position will be‚” he said.

‘‘So let’s make a big push to try and achieve that.” — DDC