Brothers in arms
WARNING: BAFANA COACH SAYS PLAYERS MUST NOT GET CARRIED AWAY
Bafana Bafana’s Percy Tau, centre, celebrates with team-mates after scoring in his side’s 6-0 hammering of the Seychelles in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
It was a great win – and for all the right reasons, Baxter says.
Stuart Baxter has warned his Bafana Bafana team against complacency in the Seychelles in their rematch tomorrow, after his side pummelled the island nation 6-0 at the FNB Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The result was a record margin victory for Bafana in any international, and got their Africa Cup of Nations Group E qualifying campaign right back on track after the disappointing September draw against Libya.
Bafana now top the group by a point from Nigeria, who thrashed Libya 4-0 at home on Saturday. The top two sides in each group will make it to Cameroon 2019.
The Seychelles increasingly look like the group’s whipping-boys, having now conceded 14 goals in three qualifying matches, understandable for a country that has no professional league, and even their coach Gavin Jeanne afterwards pointed out the relative expectations for a country of around 90 000 people taking on one that can select from over 50 million.
“For us there is always a positive, we are not scared to get on to the same field as South Africa or Nigeria,” said Jeanne.
Baxter, meanwhile, was pleased with the performance at the FNB Stadium as much as the result, and wants to make sure his side stays grounded at the Stade Linite in Victoria.
“It is a good point talking about underestimation and it is an issue that after beating Seychelles 6-0 we still have a challenge on our hands to go there and win. I said to the players that when you talk about underestimation, you have to think about why you started playing football, to represent your country. The team on the other side of the field is trying to stop you getting to a major tournament and you can’t just go through the motions, I don’t want to see people thinking we are fantastic after one good result.”
“It was a very good win (on Saturday),” added Baxter, after an own-goal, and strikes from Thulani Hlatshwayo, Lebo Mothiba, Percy Tau, Dino Ndlovu and Teboho Mokoena had completed the rout.
“We can get carried away and say it was a good win because we scored six but that would be taking a lot away from the performance of the players. To start with we had the underestimation factor, that has not been our strong suit and we worked hard to negate that.
“We scored three goals in the first half in poor weather and played good football, and in the second half we put our foot to the floor again when it was easy for the players to relax …. we were well-disciplined and stuck to our game plan and structure, the subs went on and did what we wanted them to do. It was a great win, but it was also a great win for the right reasons.”