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Sasol Banyana Banyana Head Coach Dr Desiree Ellis has warned her charges to take their chances when they face Zimbabwe in the semi-finals of the COSAFA Women’s Championship on Friday.
The two nations come face to face at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, with a 15h00 start. The South African senior women’s national team and Zimbabwe come into the clash following a similar path where they each won two matches and drew one, ending on seven points each. Banyana Banyana defeated Malawi and Angola by a 2-0 scoreline each, before coming from behind to draw 1-all with Lesotho.
“The semi-finals are always tough, there are no second chances, hopefully we can put up a good performance tomorrow. It’s going to be a game of small margins, so we need to make sure that we keep a clean sheet, when we keep a clean sheet it’s always an opportunity for us to grab a goal or two. Semifinals are never the way you think they are going to go so we just have to make sure that we bring out A game,” said Dr Ellis.
The four-time CAF Women’s Coach of the Year and her technical team have been keeping a close eye on Zimbabwe who finished second in Group B and qualified as the best second-placed team. This was after they were pipped to the top spot by Zambia.
“They (Zimbabwe) have shown that they can play, they were up there and it’s like a sleeping giant returning. They showed they can play very aggressive, very strong, very quick, so we really have to make sure that we defend really well. We have to make sure that when we get an opportunity now that we take it, against Lesotho we had a few and didn’t take them,” added Dr Ellis.
Zambia will face Namibia in the other semi-final which will also be played at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium.
Kickoff is at 12h00.
The winning nations in the two last four clashes will face off in the final on Sunday (1 March) at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium at 15h00, while the losers will battle it out for bronze on the same day at 12h00 at the same venue.
SOURCED FROM SAFA WEBSITE.