South Africa coach Stuart Baxter confident in his team’s chances to cause an upset to hosts Egypt when both teams meet in the Round of 16 clash on Saturday, saying that the pressure will be on the Pharaohs.
Egypt are proceeding with the final preparations ahead of facing Group C third place South Africa in the round of 16 on July 6.
The Pharaohs booked qualification to the round of 16 after winning all their three group games against Zimbabwe, DR Congo, and Uganda.
South Africa on the other hand, finished third in their group behind Morocco and Ivory Coast, and managed to secure a spot in the round of 16 where they will face Javier Aguirre‘s men.
” Playing against the home nation is inspiring and knowing the Egyptian people, knowing their passion for football, knowing their expectations are very high, knowing they have some great players, I believe the pressure is going to be on them,” Baxter told reporters.
” It will obviously be a national disaster if South Africa beat them and for us it will be very disappointing if we lose the game.”
“So we will go into the game quietly believing we can cause an upset but knowing we have to play very, very well because this is a good Egyptian team and they will have massive support and one of the jobs we have to do is to try to quietly quieten the crowd by being a tough opponent than what the people think.”
“This will be a great challenge and an inspiring challenge to be meeting Egypt. I think it is our job because the crowd will start with enthusiasm and it is our job to bring maybe some frustration into the mix and if we can do that and the crowd become a little bit impatient, the players will feel that on the field.”
“We know that the home nation can be a good thing and that can also bring big pressure if they feel they are not pleasing that massive crowd. So that will be part of our job. We will play with no sense of we must, we will play with a lot of sense of we want. So if we can do that, I think it will be an interesting game,” he added.
