WAFCON 2024: Ellis urges Banyana to be clinical in attacking third against Tanzania

South Africa women’s national team Banyana Banyana coach Dr Desiree Ellis has called on her charges to be clinical in front of the goal when they take on Tanzania in their second fixture of the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) at the Oujda Stadium in Morocco on Friday.

Banyana, who are defending the title they won in 2022, kicked off their Group C campaign with a 2-0 win against Ghana, while Tanzania’s Twiga Stars went down to a slim 1-0 defeat against Mali.

Ahead of the fixture, which could guarantee Banyana a qualification ticket to the knockout stage if they secure victory, Ellis has cautioned against underrating the East African nation, who will be seeking a win to stay alive in the 2024 tournament.

“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.”

The last time when Banyana faced the Twiga Stars, they won the fixture home and away during the 2024 Paris Olympics Games qualifiers. They won the away game 3-0 before returning home to win the return leg 1-0.