Cape Town – Ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarter-final clash against Nigeria, Sport24 looks at 5 players who could prove to be the match-winner for Bafana Bafana.
Stuart Baxter's men face the Super Eagles with a semi-final spot up for grabs when the two sides face off at the Cairo International Stadium on Wednesday.
Here are 5 players who could win it for Bafana:
Percy Tau
Bafana Bafana's talisman proved instrumental against Egypt with every dangerous attacking move going through the former Mamelodi Sundowns wide-man. Tau forced Egypt goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy into a fantastic save from a direct free-kick and often stretched their defence throughout the 90 minutes.
Tau is unquestionably Bafana Bafana's most dangerous threat going forward and is able to find pockets of space between the defensive lines to go alongside his quality on the ball.
Baxter will be aiming to find a way to curtail Nigeria's main attacking threats while at the same time utilise Tau's quality to enable the attacker to impact the game.
Percy Tau was clever to take a quick throw-in and even a good pass to Zungu,Mothiba then Lorch – The rest is history. #BafanaBafana #TotalAFCON2019 #EGYRSA #AFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/NJt9eXMR97
— Sundowns Fanatic ?? (@Madumetja_SoLo) July 6, 2019
Lebo Mothiba
To get the best out of Tau – Lebo Mothiba has a massive role to play as a target man for Baxter's side. A fair bit of a lone striker's job is to create space for and bring his team-mates into play. The physically intimidating Mothiba did this to perfection against the Egyptians. With Former Bafana Bafana target man George Dearnley putting it best after their impressive 1-0 win:
Very few SA football fans understand the role of a target man. Lebo played the role to perfection last night, sucking in the 2 central defenders to create space in the wide areas for Lorch & Tau. Holding it up, bringing midfield into play. Fantastic https://t.co/RB5MKwHzEs
— George Madlinyoka Dearnaley ???? (@zulushark) July 7, 2019
Thembinkosi Lorch
The Orlando Pirates attacker proved the match-winner against Egypt and contributed to Bafana Bafana's overall improvement going forward on his AFCON debut. All we need is… for him to do it again against the Super Eagles.
Remember this guy: Thembinkosi Lorch.
1st AFCON appearance = first goal ??#EGYRSA #TotalAFCON2019 pic.twitter.com/YX912550Dw
— CAF (@CAF_Online) July 6, 2019
Ronwen Williams
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