Baxter: Bafana not at Afcon to make up numbers

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Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter believes his team will compete to qualify for the knockout stages at Afcon 2019 despite having been drawn in the so called ‘group of death’.

The draw for the respective groups took place on Friday evening in Cairo, Egypt and saw Bafana drawn in Group D against neighbours Namibia as well as two former African champions and African giants in Morocco and Cote d’Ivoire.

While some sections of the South African football fraternity have already written off Bafana’s chances, Baxter, however, believes his side performs better against the bigger sides and thus the 65-year-old is upbeat about his side’s chances of qualifying for the knockout stages.

‘It is a tough but exciting draw. We have generally done well against big teams but struggled against so-called smaller teams. If we play to our potential, we should give all teams problems,’ Baxter told the Safa website after the draw.

‘We are not going to shout from the rooftops, but we are definitely not in this Group to add numbers. It is a good group with top teams, and it makes it interesting for good football.

‘We should sit down as a technical team and see how best we can prepare for this tournament,’ concluded the British coach.

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Dean Workman