Ahead of Banyana Banyana Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier return leg against Burkina Faso at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Monday (3pm), coach Desiree Ellis has identified areas where he feels they need to improve.
Banyana will face Burkina Faso favourites to qualify after the first leg ended 1-1 in Ivory Coast on Thursday.
They go into the match today with the advantage of an away goal, but Ellis, who was not entirely pleased with the outcome in the first leg, wants to see a better performance this afternoon.
“We have to be better, we made mistakes and we have to make sure we minimise them because it's schoolboys’ errors that we made,” Ellis told the Safa media department.
“We were in control of the game completely in the first leg and all of a sudden, it is 1-1 and you give them momentum and they are coming back at us, so in that way, we have to control that better.
“We have to control what we do with the ball, how we rotate the ball, that's going to be better. If we don't have players up front or in the game that's moving and have back-to-back game fatigue sets in after a long time, hopefully, we can recover quickly and be ready for the game.”
Meanwhile, Banyana striker Hildah Magaia also shared the same sentiments that they need to be better at home as they might have taken Burkina Faso lightly in the first leg.
“Knowing that we scored an away goal is a good thing for us so it is a positive thing for us even though we didn't get the results we expected,” Magaia said.
“I think every team uses their strength and we know ours is to run obviously, so we cannot compete with them physically because we know we cannot win the duels.
“But we can also expect to win second balls and also beat them with speed. There was nothing that went wrong it was hot and difficult for us to play. We expected an easy game. But we didn't know how they would play exactly.
“It was not easy. I believe that when we play at home, we will beat them. It also feels good for me to be scoring and playing. I have not scored for a while.”
Ellis rectifies Banyana’s ‘schoolboy errors’ ahead of return leg qualifier
‘We can also expect to win second balls and also beat them with speed’
Image: Gallo Images/Ronnie Tippett
Ahead of Banyana Banyana Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier return leg against Burkina Faso at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Monday (3pm), coach Desiree Ellis has identified areas where he feels they need to improve.
Banyana will face Burkina Faso favourites to qualify after the first leg ended 1-1 in Ivory Coast on Thursday.
They go into the match today with the advantage of an away goal, but Ellis, who was not entirely pleased with the outcome in the first leg, wants to see a better performance this afternoon.
“We have to be better, we made mistakes and we have to make sure we minimise them because it's schoolboys’ errors that we made,” Ellis told the Safa media department.
“We were in control of the game completely in the first leg and all of a sudden, it is 1-1 and you give them momentum and they are coming back at us, so in that way, we have to control that better.
“We have to control what we do with the ball, how we rotate the ball, that's going to be better. If we don't have players up front or in the game that's moving and have back-to-back game fatigue sets in after a long time, hopefully, we can recover quickly and be ready for the game.”
Meanwhile, Banyana striker Hildah Magaia also shared the same sentiments that they need to be better at home as they might have taken Burkina Faso lightly in the first leg.
“Knowing that we scored an away goal is a good thing for us so it is a positive thing for us even though we didn't get the results we expected,” Magaia said.
“I think every team uses their strength and we know ours is to run obviously, so we cannot compete with them physically because we know we cannot win the duels.
“But we can also expect to win second balls and also beat them with speed. There was nothing that went wrong it was hot and difficult for us to play. We expected an easy game. But we didn't know how they would play exactly.
“It was not easy. I believe that when we play at home, we will beat them. It also feels good for me to be scoring and playing. I have not scored for a while.”
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