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SOUTH AFRICA’S COACH, BAXTER LAMENTS WORLD CUP TICKETS OF NIGERIA, SENEGAL

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

 

It is no news that South Africa has missed the qualification for the Russia 2018 World Cup. But the coach, Stuart Baxter has been defiant.

Despite his team and fans of Bafana Bafana being only guaranteed sitting positions to watch on television, the proceedings of the forthcoming World Cup finals in Russia, Baxter whose team was on Friday battered 2-0 at home told post match interviewers that his team was better than World Cup-bound Senegal and Nigeria.

His team is glued precariously at the bottom of the less-challenging Group D of the African qualifying series and looked unlikely to even rise to the third position in the four-team group.

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The Senegalese are due to achieve a double on South Africa on Tuesday. Baxter’s only major success since his second stint as South Africa’s coach was the 2-0 defeat of Nigeria that fielded relatively trial players last June.

Baxter, speaking to SuperSports immediately after his team’s dreams of qualifying for the World Cup had gone in flames, said:  that told SuperSports

Senegal confirmed their qualification after defeating South Africa 2-0 in Polokwane on Friday, while Nigeria had booked their spot after piping Zambia 1-0 in Uyo on October 7.

But in his post-match reaction, Baxter posited that as long as the right things are put in place, South Africa can match the best teams on the continent: “The Senegalese team going to Russia are they so much better than us? I don’t think so. Maybe I’m being blue eyed but I don’t think Senegal or even Nigeria were much better than us.

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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