Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis said experience played a major part in helping her side qualify for their 12th Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
The South African Senior Women’s National Team secured their spot for the continental competion following a 3-1 aggregate victory against Algeria in Algiers on Wednesday, 23 February 2022.
Banyana Banyana had taken a 2-0 first leg lead to North Africa, but suffered a scare when the hosts reduced the deficit just before half time.
“Our finishing was poor, we could have been three or four nil up before they scored. And also the defending of the goal we could have done better. But this team has a lot of courage – we have been in this position before and we just needed to keep on playing,” said Ellis after sealing qualification.
“We felt that they were not a lot of threat except for the set pieces and the long balls they were playing. And we urged the players not to give free kicks around our goal area but we handled that very well. It wasn’t a great goal to give way but credit to them they never gave up and fought to the bitter end.”
The visitors would pull one back in the 62nd minute from the penalty spot, scored by Linda Motlhalo to give them a comfortable 3-1 lead.
“We always knew that we were going to get a chance again, once the penalty went in we took control of the game and we played our own game. In the end Algeria was just chasing as they needed to,” added the former Banyana Banyana mentor.
The South Africa Senior Women’s National Team held on to confirm their spot at the tournament in Morocco to take place from 2-23 July. Ellis says experience played a huge role to get them over the line.
“Credit to the Algerians because even though we were 2-0 up, then 2-1 and eventually 3-1 they still kept on fighting trying to get back. But the experience we have of being here and the experience we have in the team brought us to this point,” concluded Ellis.
The other qualified teams at the 12-nation women’s football showpiece are, alongside hosts Morocco, Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Burundi, Togo and Burkina Faso.
The 2022 AWCON will serve as qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand – and the top four in Morocco will automatically qualify for the women’s football spectacle.
By Matlhomola Morake
