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Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis praised the team's resilience after defeating Senegal to secure a spot in the 2024 WAFCON semifinal.
South Africa beat Senegal 4-1 on penalties, after the match ended in a 0-0 draw after extra time at the Honneur Stadium on Saturday night.
Speaking at the post match presser, Ellis alluded to the good work done at training to practice penalties, and believes they reaped the rewards against the Lionesses of Teranga.
"We were confident that we had enough kickers on the pitch, even if it went past we had enough kickers on the pitch but we were also confident that Andile [Dlamini] would make a save or two,” Ellis said.
“We just needed to do what we practised in training because we have so many players that can take penalties. Linda [Motlhalo] would have been the first one, Karabo [Dhlamini] then became the first one to step up and she was also one of the walking wounded but the courage and the resilience that this team has shown and the never say die attitude, I can never talk enough about that."
Ellis admits that she expected a tough match against Senegal, and adds that it became a challenge to hold their own against one of the most improved teams in this year’s edition.
"I said the game was not gonna be easy, I said the game was gonna be a very difficult game because of the group that they came out and how they played in that group and we didn't expect anything less,’’ the coach added.
“I thought that was 15 minutes, we showed a little bit of nerves trying to get into the game but once we got into the game we nullified their threat. The two strikers, they played the long ball very well, we dealt very well with that but sometimes we gave the ball away too cheaply.
“And we knew that when we give the ball away, they're gonna transition immediately but when we had opportunities we made the wrong decisions. We had said yesterday how Senegal has improved because when we played them last year June, now the team has improved.
“And to the coach, he's done a fantastic job from last year until now because from the team that we had against them in June, we only had 12 players here, they had 17 out of 24. But it shows and you almost wonder if it's the same players because they've improved so much. WAFCON is around the corner again, they must hold their heads up and continue working."
