Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune says it is up to the players to make South Africa proud and qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Khune thanked Safa president Danny Jordaan for his encouraging words ahead of their match against Burkina Faso on Saturday and was grateful to receive encouragement ahead of the crucial away tie on Saturday.

‘Those were words of wisdom from Dr (Danny) Jordaan and it is now up to us to implement what he encouraged us to go – make the country proud,’ Khune told safa.net.

Khune says it iss vital for South Africa to qualify for Russia 2018 and spoke on the importance of the team starting the campaign with a positive result.

‘It is critical that we start this drive with a good result and the rest will follow. Dr Jordaan spoke how on our day we can be the team to beat but that we need to do that on constant basis.’

Bafana Bafana held their first training session on Wednesday evening at the Municipal Stadium in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou under floodlights and will have two more training sessions on Thursday before wrapping up the preparations with another evening session at the match venue.

The match kicks off at 20:00 South African time where Khune and his teammates will be hopeful of maintaining their good away record in qualifiers for major events. They team flies out the following day, on Sunday, 9 October and head straight to Durban for a friendly international against Ghana at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday, 11 October.

They team flies out the following day and heads straight to Durban for a friendly against Ghana at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Tuesday, 11 October.

Photo: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix