‘Do not take us lightly’, Baxter warns Morocco

Stuart Baxter believes Bafana Bafana are growing as a force in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, as they bid to reach the last 16 against Morocco at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo this evening (6pm).

The Bafana head coach seemed far more relaxed at yesterday’s pre-match press conference, as befits a man who has secured his first win of the finals, albeit that the performance in the 1-0 win over Namibia on Friday left plenty to be desired.

Such is the nature of this tournament, with 16 of the 24 teams guaranteed a place in the knockout stages, including four places for the best third-placed finishers, that Bafana could lose to the Atlas Lions tomorrow and still make the next round.

A victory would make their place all but certain, and a draw may well be enough too.

Morocco will be favourites after picking up six points in Group D so far under Herve Renard, even though the North African side have never beaten Bafana Bafana. They were particularly impressive in their 1-0 win over the Ivory Coast on Friday.

“We know Morocco were very strong in their game against the Ivory Coast, that they have a very experienced team and will be tough opponents,” said Baxter.

“But we feel we are settling more and more into a good rhythm and believe we can give them a good game. The players are quite confident … we were a bit late with our preparation because of the cancelled (friendly) games, so these (competitive) games have been bringing us closer and closer to where we want to be.”

On the injury front, Dean Furman is touch-and-go after missing the Namibia game with a knee injury, while Thamsanqa Mkhize suffered a slight concussion against Namibia, but Baxter expects him to be fit to play.

Baxter, meanwhile, said the best way to deal with so many permutations in terms of qualification was just to focus on the game ahead.

“If you are looking at eventualities, and how that effects the line-up, it can be dangerous for one game to prepare a big tactical refurbishment, so that is probably not on the cards,” said Baxter.

“There will be a couple of changes to personnel, yes, but to go deeper than that is to go down the wrong street, you are wasting energy … the only thing we have control of is our performance, we need to put all our energy into our performance.

“Once the game plan is set and the players understand it, we will put our foot to the floor to get the best result we can.”

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