South Africans Linda Motlhalo and Noko Matlou had reason to celebrate this past weekend when their teams came out tops in their respective leagues.
Motlhalo’s Glasgow City powered their way into the Women’s Scottish Cup final when they thumped Motherwell 4-0 in the semi-finals of the competition on Saturday (26 April 2025).
The Banyana Banyana midfield maestro was introduced in the second half.
Nine-time winners Glasgow will now face defending champions Rangers who disposed of Aberdeen 5-0 on Sunday (27 April 2025) in the second semi-final.
The finalists will battle it out on Sunday, 25 May for gold.
Both teams are still in the race for the Scottish Women’s Premier League title and in search for a spot in the UEFA Women’s Champions League – only two sides qualify for the latter competition.
Celtic are the title holders but currently lie fourth on the table – eight points behind log leaders Hibernian. Rangers are second, two points behind while Glasgow is third on 61 points.
There are five matches remaining before the end of the season. Glasgow will be in action on Wednesday (30 April) against Rangers.
Motlhalo won the league title with City two years ago before heading off to the US and subsequently making a return after one season.
In Spain, Matlou’s Cacereño CP needed a win in the Primera Federación Femenina against fellow South African Faith Nokuthula’s DUX Logrono to secure a play-off spot for promotion into Liga F Division.
Cacereño duly delivered as they registered a 1-0 victory over Leandra Smeda’s former employers, and confirmed position five, keeping alive their hopes of getting into the big leagues.
Matlou and company will face Alaves who finished second, while third-placed SE AEM will lock horns with DUX Logrono who occupy the fourth spot.
The home and away play-off clashes will take place on Saturday, 3 May with Cacereño away, with the return fixture scheduled six days later (10 May 2025).
“This is a tricky encounter because we lost to them in the first round but bounced back and won the second-round league encounter. We are confident however that we will do well and proceed to meet the winners in the other match-up between SA AEM and DUX Logrono. It’s not going to be easy we know, but what was important was to get into the play-offs to stand a chance of promotion – right now it’s in our hands, and anything can happen,” said Matlou from Spain.
The last team standing in the play-offs will join Alaves in Liga F Division – the latter are the new league champions as they gained automatic promotion.
By Matlhomola Morake
