Benni McCarthy warns South Africa not to underestimate Eritrea in AFCON qualifier

Kenya coach Benni McCarthy has cautioned South Africa and Guinea that Eritrea could pose a serious threat in the AFCON qualifying group.

Bafana Bafana meet Eritrea at Egypt’s Al-Salam Stadium on Wednesday, with kick-off scheduled for 18:00.

South Africa began their campaign with victory over Guinea and will be targeting a second successive win. Eritrea, meanwhile, held Kenya to a 1-1 draw at the weekend.

McCarthy said Eritrea had been underestimated by many observers, but believes their performance against Kenya showed they possess the quality to trouble the group’s more established sides.

“I thought they were very good today, very surprising. A lot of people underestimate them,” said McCarthy.

“We didn’t today because we knew that they have some qualities in their squad that if we’re not careful, they would hurt us.”

The former South Africa striker said Eritrea’s attacking threat was particularly difficult to deal with, highlighting the work-rate of their forward.

“They showed every single time that when they’re getting forward, they had a striker who runs all day. He gave us a lot of trouble,” he added.

McCarthy said the result and performance should serve as a warning to both South Africa and Guinea before their meetings with Eritrea.

“So, yeah, I think the other two, the so-called big teams in the group have to watch out because the match here was exciting,” he said.

“As a neutral, it’s the kind of football you want to see except for if there were a little bit of more goals, it would have been super match of football.”

The Kenya coach concluded that Eritrea had demonstrated enough to make life difficult for both of the group’s other teams.

“But yeah, I think Eritrea and us will give both South Africa and Guinea a lot of trouble based on what we saw today.”