Banyana Banyana delivered a performance enough to see them advance to the Africa Women Cup of Nations (Awcon) finals in July, said coach Desiree Ellis after her side held Algeria to a 1-all draw on Wednesday night.
The stalemate saw the South African women’s national side advancing 3-1 on aggregate over two qualifying legs.
Full-time:
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(Agg 1-3)Banyana Banyana through to the AWCON tournament in Morocco!!!
💪🏿💛💚🇿🇦#AWCONQUALIFIERS#BanyanaBanyana #LimitlessAndBeyond pic.twitter.com/0sshs6YWVr
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) February 23, 2022
Algeria coach Radia Fertoul’s side was beaten 2-0 during the first leg at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday last week.
In the 45th minute of the second leg at the Stade Omar Hamadi in Algiers last night, Algeria’s Sylia Koui opened the scoreline to give her side the lead going into the break.
During the second half of the match, Banyana were beaming with energy and Linda Motlhalo converted a penalty from the spot to equalise for the South Africans. This away goal was crucial for Banyana.
Ellis said after the game: “I think the experience of having been here and in the team brought us to this point of securing a victory against Algeria.
“We always knew we were going to get a chance again, that’s why we didn’t lose out on the game. Once the penalty went in, we simply took control of the game and played our game.”
However, she said her side did not dish out a brilliant performance compared to their first-leg fixture at Orlando Stadium a week ago.
“Our finishing was poor, we could have been three or four up before they scored the goal,” said Ellis.
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