Banyana-Banyana captain Thembi Kgatlana says the African champions are confident ahead of the second round first leg 2024 CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Burkina Faso on Thursday evening.
The first leg is set for Charles Konan Banny stadium at 18:00 and the return leg for Lucas Moripe stadium next Monday.
Banyana are ranked 45th in the world and second in Africa while their hosts are 139 in the world and 23 on the continent. South Africa received by for the first round of qualification while Burkina Faso saw off Eswatini 6-2 on aggregate from the first round.
The teams that win in this second round will qualify for the 2024 event in Morocco.
Kgatlana says though they have learned that rankings don’t count for much a better ranking is a confidence booster.
The sides last met in 2017 with Kgatlana admitting that a lot has changed in both ends since then and Banyana cannot rely on that meeting ahead of the qualifiers. The Racing Louisville striker says what’s important is a win away to make the home leg easier.
“We are a better-ranked team than them but in football that doesn’t mean anything but it’s something that has to give us confidence going into the match,” said Kgatlana.
“One is we are the African champions and we need to start this journey now to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and start strong. I said to the rest of the team in our meetings that everyone was coming for us. We just need to be level headed, play the way we play because the biggest goal is to defend our title next year in Morocco”
“It’s been a long year you know we played a lot of tournaments, travelled everywhere. We travelled to Congo before this one for the Olympics [2024 qualifiers]. A similar trip to this one, is long, demanding, and stressful but I think the majority of the girls from the U17, U20 and Banyana have been in this situation before.
“So I think it’s something that we know it’s going to happen, we know we are going to be frustrated, we know they are going to try and make us get out of the game but what we also know is that we have to get points and better points for us to get back home where we are comfortable where we understand the settings and play better.”
