Desiree Ellis says she is not making excuses for the result between Banyana-Banyana and Burkina Faso in the second round, first leg 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifier saying her team put up a brave performance.
The South African national senior women’s team were held to a 1-1 draw at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium on Thursday.
The African champions scored first through Hilda Magaia but couldn’t defend the lead letting their hosts score an important goal going into the second leg in South Africa.
Banyana did have other chances but could not put them away while giving away possession in dangerous areas.
The coach knows it’s all to play for at home but they have to do better in not giving the ball away in that match.
“It’s a brave performance considering you know the travel and that they’ve been playing back-to-back games and travelling,” said Ellis after the game.
“We are not looking for excuses but that takes it out of the legs and now it’s all to play for back home you know we got the away goal. They fought bravely and we could have stolen it and so could they after us giving the ball away once again and we’ve got to be better in that department.
“We speak about if it’s not on don’t force it to restart it again but we kept giving it away in crucial areas and you know we hit the posts as well. So it’s all to play for but we could have sealed the game and taken a lead back to South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Magaia feels that as players they expected an easy game but found the tie difficult. However, like her coach, the breadwinner as the striker is affectionately known is confident that Banyana will win at home.
“Honestly no we expected an easy game but we didn’t know how they play exactly as you’ve seen the game it wasn’t easy but I believe that when we go home we will beat them. It feels good for me to score after a long time.
“I haven’t been scoring and playing so it feels good and also knowing that we’ve scored an away goal obviously it’s a good thing for us, it’s a positive thing for us even though we didn’t get the result we expected.
“There’s nothing that went wrong. It was hot it was difficult to play so there was nothing wrong it was just hot, it was difficult for us to play.
The second leg is set for the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Monday afternoon.
