‘We are still in it,’ says Banyana coach Desiree Ellis after Wafcon draw with Tanzania

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis wants her charges to leave nothing to chance and seal a Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) quarterfinals place when they take on Mali on Monday at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda. 

South Africa missed out on a good opportunity to secure a Wafcon knockout place after they were held to a 1-1 draw by a stubborn Tanzania on Friday night.

Things are tricky with South Africa topping Group C on four points with Mali but Tanzania and Ghana have one point each and this means defeat for Banyana could lead to complications.

“No game is easy, you saw on Thursday night where Nigeria scored in the last minute to beat Botswana. That is how difficult games are going to be and you have to take your chances,” Ellis said as she looked ahead to the crucial clash with Mali. 

“We had a few chances, especially with that one of Hilda (Magaia). On another day, she could have put that ball in the back of the net. We wanted to get all three points but it was not to be.” 

Banyana are defending champions at Wafcon and Ellis said there is still a long way to go before they can start thinking about defending the title. 

“It is too early to talk about titles or defending this trophy because there is still a long way to go in the tournament, with more games to be played. For us, it is about taking one game at a time. 

“We don’t want to think too far ahead, we don’t want to lose focus on what is coming.” 

Ellis made a few changes from the opening win over Ghana, including dropping goalkeeper Andile Dlamini for Kaylin Swart, a move that raised eyebrows.

“We had a different strategy because we felt their players pushing up, we could hit them on the sides and we thought Kaylin could do that. There are small margins between Andile (Dlamini) and Kaylin. 

“We are privileged to have two quality goalkeepers, anyone can come in on the day and stand in goals. There are not many teams that have two quality goalkeepers like ours. If either of them goes to another country, they will be the number one goalkeeper. 

“We had a good enough team to get the result against Tanzania. They scored early but we had a better chance before they scored and we didn’t put it away and that is the nature of the game. 

“If we had won the game the question would not be about the four changes but that’s how it is. We didn't get the result that we wanted but we are still in it because we haven’t lost a match. 

“I thought the comeback was good, we could have won it because we had a few good chances but that’s how the game goes sometimes. This team has showed grit and courage, we were behind but managed to fight back and get the result that we deserved.”