Bafana Bafana marksman Iqraam Rayners is raring to test himself against the best on the continent when they take on Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier, feeling indebted to national team coach Hugo Broos for affording him the opportunity.
After facing their long-time rivals Nigeria in their backyard at the 30,000-seater Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday (9pm SA time), Bafana will return home to battle it out against neighbours Zimbabwe in another World Cup qualifier at Free State Stadium on Tuesday (6pm).
Fresh from netting an impressive 14 goals in the league to aid his side, Stellenbosch, to finish third and qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup, Rayners now aims to help Bafana against the Super Eagles.
"It's not easy to play at this level compared to the PSL, this is international level, so this a great opportunity for me to test myself against the best on the continent, especially against the players of Nigeria who play for big clubs in Europe,'' Rayners said at Bafana's press conference at Dobsonville Stadium yesterday.
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Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
Bafana Bafana marksman Iqraam Rayners is raring to test himself against the best on the continent when they take on Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier, feeling indebted to national team coach Hugo Broos for affording him the opportunity.
After facing their long-time rivals Nigeria in their backyard at the 30,000-seater Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday (9pm SA time), Bafana will return home to battle it out against neighbours Zimbabwe in another World Cup qualifier at Free State Stadium on Tuesday (6pm).
Fresh from netting an impressive 14 goals in the league to aid his side, Stellenbosch, to finish third and qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup, Rayners now aims to help Bafana against the Super Eagles.
"It's not easy to play at this level compared to the PSL, this is international level, so this a great opportunity for me to test myself against the best on the continent, especially against the players of Nigeria who play for big clubs in Europe,'' Rayners said at Bafana's press conference at Dobsonville Stadium yesterday.
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"I am thankful to the coach [Broos] for believing in me. For me, it's a great opportunity to be here. I have the confidence to do what the coach asks me to do.''
Rayners suggested the aim was to go for a draw in Nigeria and beat the Warriors in Bloemfontein next Tuesday. Even so, the Bafana striker still hope they can engineer a smash-and-grab kind of a win like Orlando Pirates did when they beat Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup final at the weekend, where Relebohile Mofokeng, who's also in the Bafana squad, netted with virtually the last touch of the game to give Bucs the 2-1 win in Nelspruit.
"If we can't win, we must at least get a point in Nigeria. Like the coach said, he wants four points from these two games but we will try to get six points...this is football and anything can happen, we might steal the game in the last minutes in Nigeria, you saw what happened at the weekend [referring to Pirates' win over Sundowns],'' Rayners said
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