Bafana Bafana boss Stuart Baxter believes luck deserted them in the Seychelles on the “worst” pitch he ever saw.
Baxter and his manne were held to an embarrassing goalless draw by the island amateurs in their Afcon 2019 Group E qualifying match on Tuesday.
Despite enjoying 75 percent of the ball possession and creating 22 chances at goal, they could not break through, with Lebo Mothiba being denied by the crossbar early in the second half.
The result and Nigeria’s 3-2 win over Libya later that evening saw South Africa lose top spot in their group, with matches against those two teams up next to qualify for next June’s finals in Cameroon.
And Baxter says: “Of course we are disappointed with the result. The players were very deflated. I won’t say embarrassed. They know the result was important.
“Immediately after the game, I was frustrated and angry, the way the game panned out.
“[Nigeria boss] Gernot [Rohr] told me that that was the worst pitch they ever played on in a competitive game, but that’s not an excuse because I feel we did enough to win the game.
“But I think the combination of the pitch and unbelievable time-wasting by the opposition and a poor refereeing performance, we didn’t take advantage of the chances we created.
“We hit the crossbar. Those are the margins. You need a bit of luck on that pitch.”