Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has responded to Nigeria boss Gernot Rohr's claim that South Africa are the favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations after seeing off Egypt.
Baxter's charges provided one of the biggest upsets of the tournament when they eliminated Mohamed Salah's Egypt in the last 16, courtesy of Thembinkosi Lorch's late strike.
Speaking ahead of the quarter-final clash between South Africa and the Super Eagles at the Cairo International Stadium, Baxter has now weighed in on Rorh's recent sentiments that Bafana are now the favourites to win the tournament.
Read: 'Bafana favourites to win AFCON'
The former Kaizer Chiefs boss was asked at a pre-match press conference if he agrees with his men being favourites to win the clash against Nigeria.
"Not at all. I think the Nigerians are absolutely one of the best teams on the continent. They have been for a long time," he answered, according to SAFA.net.
"They have been a powerhouse of African football for a long time. And one game doesn't make us favourites.
"I think Gernot would love to have that tag as underdogs‚ and in that way slip the pressure from you guys (Nigeria). But I don't think he's fooling anybody, to tell you the truth.
"No‚ we'll go into the game as we do every game. When we hit that balance between good organisation and still getting the ball in play and playing with pace‚ and closing people down at pace‚ and using the natural inherent ability and technique‚ we can give anybody on this continent a good game.
"Therefore, we go into every game knowing that we have the chance to win and the chance to lose. And that is how we'll approach this game. We'll respect Nigeria and not fear them. And we'll absolutely not think that we're the favourites.
"We will know that we have to produce a very good South Africa performance if we're going to beat them."
The two sides will do duty at the Cairo International Stadium on Wednesday night, with kick-off set for 21:00.