Bafana Bafana left-back Sifiso Hlanti says as players they are not daunted by facing in-form continental giants Nigeria because representing the national team always comes with pressure.
South Africa will host the West Africans in their penultimate AFCON qualifier at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
The winner will punch their ticket to Cameroon 2019.
Bafana won the first leg 2-0 in Uyo, but the Super Eagles rebounded strongly to take control of Group E.
“So far everything is going well,” Hlanti told KickOff.com.
“The guys are also showing that they are well prepared. Pressure is something that is always there, but it’s up to us as players how we react when it comes to such situations. But it is not something that we need to put in our head too much because we know our task. We also know what is important to us as defenders. Our first priority is to keep a clean sheet so everything else will happen on its own. I think the most important thing is communication and understanding of how we play.
“Worrying yourself too much about the opposition team doesn’t help. We must focus on the quality that we’ve got. If you look at our previous games since we play the way we do, I think we have never conceded. So that shows we understand each other. We work for each other.
“The most important thing is to get three points. How we win it doesn’t matter because these are qualifiers we are playing for here. Yes, there are those situations where we will need to play well. What we are more concerned about are points. I still believe that the more you collect points it makes things easier in your remaining games. Studying them won’t help us because we know how they play. So they also need to be worried about us.”