Banyana Banyana are set to continue with their preparations for the Africa Women Cup of Nations, which will be held in Morocco in July, by taking on the Netherlands on April 12 in Den Haag at the Kyocera Stadium (6.45pm). 

The exhibition match between these two nations was supposed to have taken place last year, but was postponed. For Banyana, the rescheduling of the match is at the perfect time as they are preparing for the Awcon (Africa Women Cup of Nations), a tournament they hope to win and qualify for next year's Fifa Women's World Cup that will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. 

SA, who are ranked 57th in the world, will battle with the fifth-best team in the world. The high-profile match, which will feature Arsenal Women star Vivianne Miedema, is exactly what Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis ordered. 

"We are very excited, we asked for top opposition, and Safa delivered on this. It is a big game for us," said Ellis. 

“This is part of our preparations for the Awcon, but also to test players against a higher-level opponent to assess if the players have the necessary mental strength to stay focused despite not having played any league matches this year,” she said.

Ellis declared that with this Awcon edition, they hope to get the weight of never winning the tournament off their shoulder by going all the way. She elaborated on how they plan on winning the title in Morocco.

"We have small goals in the tournament, first to win our first game because that sets the tone for the rest of the tournament. Then get to the quarter-finals and that's going to be very tricky. The next goal is to get to the semi-finals then you achieve going to the World Cup. 

"We haven't won it before, it's a big monkey on our backs, we got close in 2018, and we have sat down and discussed how we are going to approach this. We know expectations are high," said Ellis.