Banyana Banyana are just one hurdle from winning their first ever Women’s African Cup of Nations (Wafcon) tournament and they will have to be mentally strong when they face Morocco and their intimidating crowd on Saturday.
Morocco, who are the hosts of this year’s competition, defeated Nigeria 5-4 via penalties on Monday night. The South Africans also booked their ticket to the finals after a controversial 1-0 win over Zambia on the same day.
Knowing how passionate the Moroccans are about their football and their national teams, Banyana players are in for a high jump, as witnessed by Nigeria in the semi-finals. The Super Falcons were by far the better side and were expected to advance to the finals but Morocco’s twelve man, which is the vociferous crowd, pushed the home side over the line.
“Morocco have fantastic supporters and they play good football and they also have a top coach. I have been in coaching programmes with him. We just need to make sure that we bring our A-class game to make sure we get that gold medal,” said Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis.
“We wanted to make sure that they did not take the ball too quickly. Our attacking midfielders were not available to make us play in the first half and it was really frustrating. We gave the ball away and they launched a lot of counter-attacks but we stood solid. We made changes in the second half and had a bit of a balance and we started taking the game to them,” said Ellis.
“We were always in control at the back and I thought our defence was magnificent and we have kept three clean sheets in a row. VAR gave us the penalty and we put it away but Zambia have good quality but we wanted it badly and we are off to the final. At half time I told the players to start moving the ball around and to keep possession and to stay compact at the back,” she added.
“Semi-finals are not always about a pretty game, victory is important because you are not playing for three points, you are playing to reach the finals. After having come so close in 2018 we wanted to give ourselves a chance. We have reached our two objectives of qualifying for the Fifa World Cup and now reaching the Wafcon finals. Many players and coaches have reached this stage but have never won this tournament.”
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