Mark Williams, former South African Bafana Bafana striker, and 1996 Africa Cup of Nations winner, has said that his country can defeat their Nigerian hosts at home in Uyo going by the quality of players coach Stuart Baxter has chosen.
Bafana Bafana faces Nigeria on Saturday, June 10, in the opening encounter of the AFCON qualifiers at the Nest of Champions in Uyo.
On May 25, Baxter named his official 25-man squad that parades the likes of Tokelo Rantie and Thamsanqa Gabuza.
Williams believes that the return of Rantie to the squad will be game for the team.
Hear him: “Look, he brought Tokelo Rantie, if you can keep that man fit you know with the pace that he’s got, he is definitely a clutch when they play against Nigeria. We have Gabuza, I would have gone for Eleazar Rogers but, I think he went for Gabuza for the physicality.”
On why he thinks Aubrey Ngoma finally got the Bafana call-up Williams said: “Sometimes players aren’t ready, I think now that he (Ngoma) has learnt that you need to have patience and plan, I think with Stuart Baxter, the English mentality is like that, they like to plan, they won’t call you because of the fact that you are scoring goals, they are going to make sure when they call you that you are going to be part of the squad.
“That is how the mentality of English coaches are. I also think that they should not separate Ngoma and Manyama. I think it is important that they play them together because both are a clutch, don’t play one and leave the other one. Play them so that they can complement one another.”