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Who Banyana will face in the next round of the World Cup
“We can’t share that plan but we have worked on something that we feel can get us the results," said Ellis before the match.
Banyana Banyana players during a training session on Tuesday in Wellington (PHOTO: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix)
Banyana Banyana will face the Netherlands in the next round of the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup .
The SA women’s side beat Italy 3-2 in their final group game on Wednesday.
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Ahead of the clash, coach Desiree Ellis said it was “a final” for her side.
Ellis has become some kind of public enemy through her questionable team selections at the tournament held in Australia and New Zealand.
Her omission of long serving and more experienced goalkeeper, Andile Dlamini has been a bone of contention since the first game.
Should Banyana have failed to progress past the group stages, she was likely to be welcomed by calls for her to step down.
After a tough loss to Sweden in their opener and a nail-biting 2-2 draw against Argentina, Banyana knew there’s no room for error .
Standing in their way to the next round were the Italians, who come from a painful 5-0 defeat to Sweden – and were eager to redeem themselves.
A Banyana loss or draw means lights out
A win or draw for Italy would have seen them progress should Sweden continue their winning streak and beat Argentina as well.
“We know it’s going to be a difficult game, they are going to have to protect what they have and we have to come for the three points,” said the Banyana coach ahead of the Italy clash.
“It is do or die; we need nothing less than victory. We have really worked hard on a lot in the last couple of days, like how we can hurt them.
“We can’t share that plan but we have worked on something that we feel can get us the results.”
Behind closed doors, Banyana Banyana has been concocting a secret masterplan, working tirelessly to exploit Italy’s weaknesses.
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Ellis was tight-lipped about the details, but assured us it was something that could potentially unlock the door to the next round.
“We also review, we have a post-match session after every match on what we could have done better, and we work on that a lot in training.
“Like I said, you can work on it at training and sometimes it is organisational that does not work on the day, in moments where we are not organised.
“But we have to constantly work on that all the time to give them the opportunity to do better.”
