Banyana Banyana will look to book their ticket into the quarter-final of the 2024 Africa Women’s Championships (WAFCON 2024) when they face Tanzania on Friday night.
South Africa return to the Honneur Stadium in Oujda hoping for three more points after opening the competition with a 2-0 win over Ghana on Monday.
A second win on the bounce will see Desiree Ellis’ side make it to the quarter-final and join record champions Nigeria who have already booked their place after back-to-back victories.
Form guide
Banyana Banyana’s win over Ghana was their eighth straight this year, a formidable record that makes them overwhelming favourites against the Twiga Stars.
To make it even more difficult for Tanzania, South Africa have kept six clean sheets over that period while scoring 17 goals with just three conceded.
Tanzania, meanwhile, must win to avoid an early flight back to Dar es Salaam as they lost their opening match 1-0 to Mali.
The East Africans came into the tournament with a formidable record as they had won seven of their previous nine games, drawing one and losing another.
However, they have found it tough against WAFCON teams as they had lost 3-0 to Morocco in a friendly just before the tournament started before the defeat to Mali and must get at least a draw against South Africa with hopes of a win in their final match against Ghana to go through as one of the best third-placed teams.
Head-to-head
South Africa and Tanzania have faced off three times before with Banyana Banyana winning all matches.
Two of those matches were played in February last year, South Africa winning the first 3-0, before a 1-0 victory to add onto a 2-1 that they secured over the East Africans in November 2010.
What have they said?
Ellis accepts South Africa are favourites but is warning against complacency as Tanzania could spring a surprise on Friday night.
“Obviously, we want to get a win to cement our place in the second round. The last group stage match will determine who goes top, but we have seen in the matches over the last couple of days that there are no easy games,” Dr Ellis said as quoted by SAFA media.
“We have played Tanzania before but that goes out of the window, it means nothing. We also know that they need to win to stay in the competition, so we need to make sure that we don’t concede because we are going to create opportunities and then take those opportunities.
“We need to be a lot more clinical in the attacking third when we are there. We had a couple of chances against Ghana that could have sealed the game, and they hit the crossbar after that. We need to concentrate a lot more on what we need to do to make sure we get those things right.”
Time and where to watch
The match will kick off at 21:00 South African time at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda and will be live on SuperSport TV and SABC.
Banyana Banyana predicted lineup
Dlamini; Ramalepe, Mbane, Dhlamini, Magama; Jane, Makhubela, Motlhalo; Magaia, Seoposenwe, Motau
