By Daily Sports on June 11, 2017
South Africa coach Stuart Baxter has described his team’s first-ever competitive win over Nigeria as massive while also lamenting they could have won the AFCON qualifier by more than the 2-0 they achieved.
Hosts Nigeria slumped to second-half goals by Tekelo Rantie and Percy Tau in an opening Group E clash in Uyo Saturday night.
“Beating Nigeria in their home is massive for the whole country and you must excuse me if I am very, very pleased,” Baxter said at a post-match conference.
“We could have scored more goals with a little bit more composure, even though I don’t want to sound like a bad winner.”
The Englishman revealed that the game plan was to contain the hosts in the first 20 minutes of the game before they opened up their play which they did with great effect after the interval.
“We set out to try to contain the super eagles for the first 15, 20 minutes so that the crowd will not be up and pumping, so we played a little bit deeper. And after the first 20 minutes, we tried to open the field, but they pressed quite well,” he explained.
“But in the second half, we opened the field up better and players like Percy and Rantie could get behind the defence.”
*Photo shows coach Baxter.
Source Daily Sports
Posted June 11, 2017
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