Banyana’s Ellis – ‘It’s not how you start, but how you finish’
· Citizen
Banyana Banyana will need to take down hosts Morocco in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) quarterfinals on Saturday night in Rabat, if they are to seal their place at the 2027 Fifa Women’s World Cup finals in Brazil.
Banyana make life difficult
Desiree Ellis’ side have not made life easy for themselves en route to the last eight, but a 1-0 win over Burkina Faso on Tuesday was enough to take them through as Group B runners-up.
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Ivory Coast’s win over Tanzania in the other Group B match meant Banyana vaulted into second in the group, to set up the clash with Morocco.
Thembi Kgatlana’s early goal gave Bafana an advantage against Burkina Faso that they managed to hang on to, though they needed a VAR decision in their favour to overturn a Burkinabe penalty.
“I said it was going to be a tough one, and we made it a little bit difficult for ourselves. We scored early and stopped playing,” said Ellis at the post match press conference.
“You’ve got to give credit to the players though, it wasn’t pretty and sometimes it doesn’t have to be pretty. Defensively we were organised and I think we had one or two chances that could have put the game to bed. But I thought the team played very well.”
Banyana lost their opening Group B match 2-1 to Tanzania and then needed a goal deep into stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw with Ivory Coast.
‘The fightback shows what this team is made of’
“It’s not how you start, but how you finish,” added Ellis.
“The fightback shows what this team is made of, and we keep working on being better and that’s all we can do.
“Now the games are coming thick and fast, there’s no margin for error. We have also shown that we can grind out results.
“I think in 2018 we played probably the best football of the tournament and we didn’t win it. In 2022 we mixed it up, so we’ve learned that you can’t play pretty all the time and that’s what people expect from Banyana Banyana. But we will take it step by step and day by day.”