Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter labelled his side’s performance against Burkina Faso ”magnificent” as his side kept their World Cup hopes alive with a 3-1 win.

The home side turned on the magic, and three first-half goals by Mamelodi Sundowns trio Percy Tau, Themba Zwane and Sibusiso Vilakazi saw Baxter’s charges garner a 3-1 victory.

Baxter said that the performance was needed after the nation had lost some trust in the national team.

“With the knife at the throat, the players gave a magnificent performance,” he said in post-match comments.

“It’s not easy, people have given them a lot criticism, some warranted, some over the top.

“I think that performance in that situation speaks volumes for South African football.

“I think we got a nice balance between defending doggedly and expressing yourself in the last third, especially when movement, pace and trickery was bamboozling them,” he added.

Baxter revelled in his side’s impressive performance and said that the nation can also be proud of such a performance.

“We certainly don’t want showboating. We want our skill, our technique, our ideas to hurt our opponent,” he added.

“A couple of times late on in the game, we didn’t manage game the very well because we tried that and we were down to 10 men, and it’s about keeping the ball and not risking it, but that’s OK, we’ll learn from that.

“In terms of expressing yourself, it’s putting yourself into a mental frame of mind that you want to play and they wanted to play.

“They were thinking about what they were doing on the field and not thinking about stuff that is being written or the next two games, it was here and now, and I just felt it in the dressing room that the game plan was simple and clear.

“The lads did their best, not always perfect and the total performance, I don’t say this very often, but South Africa can be proud,” he concluded.

Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/Backpagepix

-This story originally appeared on SportsClub.co.za