Baxter: We have to make sure that we are difficult to beat

Cape Town - If Bafana Bafana want to be a force in Africa and world football, head coach Stuart Baxter believes that his players will need to learn from their mistakes.

South Africa salvaged a 1-1 draw in the Nelson Mandela Challenge at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday night courtesy of a late Percy Tau strike.

Federico Santander scored the opening goal of the game in the first-half before Tau popped up with a leveller late on in the match.

“I don’t think we’re used to playing against a team that shows so much aggression. They were very ready for this game. It was going back to school for a lot of our players,” Baxter said in his post-match interview with SuperSport.

“Pleasing as it was we learned that when we moved the ball quickly and got into spaces playing our game we gave them problems as well.

“I said to the players before we went out [for the second half] that if this is a preparation for Libya then we have to make sure that we are difficult to beat.

“And if we keep going and make sure that we learn from our mistakes and we’re tight and never give up then that’s the first step in being difficult to beat.

“I made some changes and mixed it up a little bit, but the boys kept on going and I think we were really unlucky that we didn’t score before [Percy scored late].

“Yes, they had big chances. We made bad decisions on transitions, that’s their game. But we gave as good as we got and with a better luck we could have got a goal bit earlier,” he concluded.