Burkina Faso coach Duarte not giving up of making it to Russia next year

A shell-shocked Burkina Faso coach Paulo Duarte still believes that his team has a chance to go to the Fifa World Cup in Russia next despite their astonishing 3-1 loss to Bafana Bafana at FNB Stadium on Saturday.

A shell-shocked Burkina Faso coach Paulo Duarte still believes that his team has a chance to go to the Fifa World Cup in Russia next despite their astonishing 3-1 loss to Bafana Bafana at FNB Stadium on Saturday.

The Portuguese coach said they have to win their last match against Cape Verde in Ouagadougou on November 14 to put themselves in a position to qualify for what will be their first World Cup.

Duarte was speaking before the two late goals tilted advantage to Senegal in Group D as they beat Cape Verde 2-0 in Praia.

The Lions of Teranga now needs one victory in two matches against Bafana to cancel out everyone in this group as they will finish with 11 points.

Burkina Faso or Cape Verde can only win the group if they are favoured by goal difference in case Senegal gain only point in their two matches against Bafana.

Gaining four points won’t help Bafana as it will only give them eight points while one between Senegal‚ Cape Verde or Burkina Faso can qualify with nine points with goal difference in their favour.

"I said from the beginning of these qualifiers that every team in this group has what it takes to qualify and I'm still saying that now. We only have ourselves to blame for the poor first half we had against a very good South African side‚" said Duarte after goals by Mamelodi Sundowns trio‚ Percy Tau‚ Themba Zwane and Sibusiso Zuma put the Stallions qualification completely out of their hands now.

Duarte blamed his attack for not being sharp enough to trouble the Bafana defence with Alian Traore managing to get them a consolation via a well taken free kick three minutes from time.

“We were better in the second half but our failure to get an early goal in this half killed all our hopes of changing the result.”

Thamsanqa Mkhize of Cape Town City‚ making his debut‚ had a stellar game alongside a new pairing of Clayton Daniels and Morgan Gould in Bafana’s central defence.

Together with Sifiso Hlanti on the left side of the defence‚ Mkhize managed to shut down the dangerous Burkina forwards.