AFCON
How I Caged the Super Eagles, Says Baxter
Bafana Bafana’s coach is still enjoying the status of ‘man-of-the-moment’ following his spectacular plot that broke the jinx that had afflicted South Africa in previous encounters with Super Eagles.
Coincidentally, he was the handler of the team when Bafana Bafana beat Nigeria in a Mandela Challenge contest 14 years ago at Ellis Park, in Johannesburg. He told Times Live in South Africa that he had never received as much text messages in his life as he did after his team beat Nigeria last Saturday.
This is reverse to what he experienced when he was fired in his first spell after he failed to qualify South Africa to Egypt 2006 Africa Cup of Nations.
He said even though he had just four days of camping as against the three weeks the Super Eagles had, he had to resort to intelligent gathering and consultations with relevant people who could help out.
He contracted Manchester United scouts to gather credible intelligent reports on the Super Eagles as they trained and played two friendly matches in France.
Baxter had ticked just about every box in his preparations since being appointed just over a month ago.
He selected a strong‚ well thought-out squad. He called Thulani Serero to explain the marginalised Ajax Amsterdam player’s omission.
He called Hunt for advice on his squad. Hear what he told the South African media: “We’ve had injury scares left‚ right and centre. We had to back off one of the trainings (on arrival in Uyo on Thursday) because the trip was too long and arduous.
“And I don’t know if it took us a bit of time to get into our stride‚ or if you just expect a storm in the first 20 minutes – I don’t know if it was us or Nigeria.
“But it just felt that after about 20 minutes the crowd went down‚ Nigeria started making mistakes‚ and we opened the pitch better. And once we started opening the pitch‚ then we started getting our players on the ball‚ doing things on the ball.
“Once the defending led to attacking play‚ I thought we dominated the game. We hit the post twice.
“The other reason I’m delighted is that you know that if you have a disappointing result‚ then straight away people are saying‚ ‘Ah well‚ you see. He’s good at club level but he’s failing again. So absolutely delighted.”
Faced with internal challenges that include players’ injuries and boycotts, the Libyan coach, Nasser Al-Hadhiri is believed by local press as facing a ‘near-impossible mission’ in Nigeria.
“The team’s mission against Nigeria seems almost impossible. The Nigerian team has a strong squad, led by names such as Ademola Lookman and Victor Boniface, which makes the task more difficult for the Libyan team”, Akhbarlibya24 editorialised.
It further reported that despite the difficult situation, the Libyan coach, Nasser Al-Hadhiri remains somewhat optimistic, as he hopes to achieve a positive result. He remarked: “We realize that winning against Nigeria is difficult, but we seek to return with a draw that will be positive for us and restore our hope in competing for qualification.”
According to Libya’s news outlets, there are palpable fears in the Libya national team which faces successive crises and trying to avoid early elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series.
The team which faces the Super Eagles this week has been plagued with players’ absences occasioned by injuries and boycotts.
The coach recently appointed has revealed the names of players refusing to represent the national team.
In a press conference held on Saturday, Coach Nasser Al-Hadhiri remarked that the absence of several players were due to real injuries.
In that class are Ahmed Al-Tarbi, a defender of Ahli Tripoli; Mohammed Al-Tabbal of Al-Nasr club and Ali Youssef who also suffered the injury while playing with Tunisia’s Club Africaine.
If the Libyan national team sticks to plans, the players are expected to have arrived in Nigeria ahead of their Friday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying duel in Uyo.
With most players drawn from the domestic league, the national team had daily training sessions in Tripoli under coach Nasser Al-Hadhiri and his assistants Akram Al-Hammami and Abu Bakr Al-Hark.
However, according to media sources in Libya, the team faces injury worries even though the absence of Victor Osimhen in the Nigerian squad is being celebrated.
Even though it did not mention the injured Libyan players, Libya Al-Ahrar Channel reports that replacements were found in Al-Tahadi FC defender, Mohammed Khalil and Al-Nasr midfielder, Abdullah Abdul Rahim as well as Al-Akhdar winger, Faraj Ghaidhan. They take the places of the absent regular players.
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