Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says her team deserves to progress to the knockouts of the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
Having never won a single match at World Cups, the odds are stacked against South Africa ahead of Wednesday’s 9am must-win clash against Italy in Wellington.
Ranked 54th in the world, the African champions face the 16th best team and will also be keeping one eye on Group G’s other match which kicks off at the same time between log leaders Sweden, who’ve already qualified for the next stage, and the fourth-placed Argentina.
IT’S MATCHDAY ON OUR SIDE! 🚨
— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) August 1, 2023
⚽️South Africa🇿![CDATA[]]>🇦![CDATA[]]>🆚 Italy 🇮![CDATA[]]>🇹
🗓️TODAY, 02 August 2023
🏟️Wellington Regional Stadium
⏰19:00pm (09:00am RSA)
📺 Live on @Official_SABC1 and @SABC_Sport channel #BeyondGreatness #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/FalOg2dpmU
If the Argies beat Sweden, SA must better their result to be certain of advancing.
And Ellis hopes that things fall in their favour.After leading against both Sweden and Argentina, SA lost 2-1 to the former and drew 2-2 against the latter.
And the coach says: “We deserved more during this tournament and we didn’t get it and now it’s up to us to go that extra mile to make sure we give it all we’ve got, because we’ve come here to go to the second round.
Playing in Yellow and Green today 💛![CDATA[]]>💚#BeyondGreatness #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/d3xlLRkpwA
“We know the quality we have and we know what this team is capable of.”
She adds of facing Italy: “This is our final, we can’t look any further than this.
“It’s all hands on deck to make sure we get the result we deserve. We haven’t gotten the rub of the green – all we ask is ‘look both ways, don’t just look one way’.
“I think a lot of teams got some tough results and the 50-50s didn’t go our way…
“We’ve said to the players just continue, but we all know what’s at stake, we all know how big this is. We all know how it can change back home, the history, what it can do for the players, we’ve come here with the aim of getting to the second round and that hasn’t changed.”
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