Johannesburg – Zambia crushed hearts of Banyana Banyana in the COSAFA Cup play-offs, when they snitched a 4-3 penalty-shoot out victory at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium on Saturday.
The South African women national team played with pride on Saturday, contesting for the third place on the tournament, however their hopes were tarnished by The She-polopolo.
Banyana were condemned to the ranks of the playoffs following their humiliation loss at the hands of Malawi on Thursday.
The encounter was decided by the penalty shoot-out, after both teams headed into the extra time of the match with a 1-1 scoreline.
Zambia lead the game just under the radar of the 20th minutes of the game in the first hald, with a clean goal from Ochumba Oseke Lubandji.
Banyana Banyana staged a few counter-attacks, but none were telling enough to break through the defence of Zambia.
The opening scorer for Banyana came in the second half of the game in the 75th minute from the unstoppable Sibulele Holweni who unleashed a superb goal, that marked her fifth goal in the tournament.
With this equaliser, Holweni walked away as the COSAFA Women’s Championship top goal scorer.
Speaking post the match, Banyana coach Desiree Elis confirmed that the team performed poorly in this match, and she expressed her disappointment following the result.
“We conceded poorly yet again, we had good opportunities but we didn’t take them, we were not consistent to take chances,” says Ellis.
“I don’t think anyone can be happy because we are better than this, now is all guns ahead as we head to the qualifiers and is not going to be easy against Mozambique,” added heartfelt Ellis.
Banyana will play against Mozambique in the first round of 2022 AWCON qualifiers as CAF African Women Cup of Nations will place in Morocco next year.
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