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Johannesburg - South Africa will look to recover some pride when they face Senegal for an international friendly in the Nelson Mandela Challenge on Tuesday evening.
The teams will meet at the Orlando Stadium, with kick-off set for 19:00.
After suffering an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Mauritania which has put Bafana Bafana’s hopes of qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in serious doubt, Shakes Mashaba’s side could do with a lift.
However, Bafana have never beaten Senegal in six previous meetings between the teams, including two matches for the Nelson Mandela Challenge in 2002 and 2005.
On the former occasion, the Lions of Teranga won 4-1 on penalties after the teams drew 1-1 in Johannesburg, while in the latter case the West Africans won 3-2 in Port Elizabeth.
The teams have also met in two competitive fixtures (both in the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations) and drew 1-1 in both 2008 and earlier this year in the AFCON finals in Equatorial Guinea.
Mashaba has admitted that his side was well below par in the loss to Mauritania and must improve if they are to register a good result against Senegal.
“I must admit we did not play well at all against Mauritania,” said Shakes, who added, “Credit must go to the home side for the way they played but on a good day they are team that should not beat us.”
The Bafana coach says that he will rotate his players for the fixture against Senegal. “Due to the injuries we will definitely make some changes and also because we want to give other players a chance who did not play in the first match.”
As for the Lions of Teranga, they come into the match on something of a high after recording a 2-0 win over COSAFA Cup champions Namibia in Windhoek in their AFCON qualifier on Saturday.
Premier League-based players Cheikhou Kouyate and Sadio Mane scored for Aliou Cisse’s side, who top Group K of the qualifiers with a full haul of six points.
The Senegal coach said he was “happy and proud of [his] players” after the match and added that he will continue to blood new players.
