The South African Women’s National Team will face Burkina Faso in the second leg of the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers today at the Lucas Moripe Stadium.
Banyana Banyana will need to win this match to qualify for the tournament after being held to a 1-1 draw by Burkina Faso in the first leg last Thursday. A goalless draw will also see them secure qualification.
However, speaking to the media ahead of the match, South Africa head coach Desiree Ellis said there is no excuse ahead of today’s clash.
“We are not looking for excuses but that takes it out of the legs and now it’s all to play for back home,” she said.
Ellis is comforted by her team’s away goal but feels they need to work on keeping ball possession.
“You know we got the away goal. They fought bravely [in the first leg] and we could have stolen it and so could they after us giving the ball away once again and we’ve got to be better in that department.
“We have to be better; we made mistakes and we have to make sure we minimize them because it’s the schoolboys’ errors that we made.
“We kept giving the ball away in crucial areas and you know we hit the posts as well. So it’s all to play for but we could have sealed the game and taken a lead back to South Africa.”
Meanwhile, defender Janine van Wyk is set to become the outright all-time African player with the most national team caps, should she make her 185th appearance today.
Last week, she equaled Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan’s record of 184 caps.
