Head Coach of South Africa Desiree Ellis FIFA Womens World Cup 2023. [Photo Credit/ Imago].
Head coach of the South African Female Football team, Desiree Ellis, was delighted following her side’s WAFCON 2024 quarter-final victory against Senegal, Soccernet.ng reports.
Bayana Bayana were wasteful against Les Lions de La Teranga, mustering 15 shots on target without finding the back of the net yesterday evening.
They were able to secure victory after 120 minutes of action at the Honneur Stadium, Oujda. South Africa won the penalty shoot-out by a 4-1 scoreline.
The reigning WAFCON champions put all of their spot kicks away while Senegal missed twice. Ellis’ side will now take on NIgeria in the competition’s semi-final, but in the meantime, she’s keen on celebrating her side’s victory.
“I said the game was not going to be easy, I said it was going to be a difficult game because of the group they were in and how they got out – and we didn’t expect anything less,” said Ellis on Safa.net.
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“We dealt very well with their long ball, but sometimes we gave the ball away too cheaply. Senegal has improved from the last time we played them, the coach has done a fantastic job.
“We have been practising penalties, and we knew who our kickers were going to be, and that’s why we made the changes we made. We always knew that Andile can save one or two – she had done it before.
“This was our first penalty shoot victory in the WAFCON – we lost it in 2006 and in 2018 in the final. I don’t have enough words to describe this team – the resilience, the courage, the never-say-die attitude, the willingness to fight for each other. No matter what they threw at us, we were able to withstand that.
“We are not thinking about Nigeria right now, we will think about the next match tomorrow. Let’s celebrate what we have done,” the former CAF Women’s Coach of the Year concluded.
It is also worth that the Super Falcons defeated Bayana Bayana en route to sealing a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the battle between both sides is becoming one of the biggest rivalries in Africa, in the men and women’s team alike.
Nigeria walloped a rising Zambian side 5-0 in the quarter-finals and will be hoping to take the same energy to South Africa on Tuesday at the Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca.
Adefolahan Guerreiro
Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria.
With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience.
He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.