By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde
Sports Writer, kick442.com Nigeria
Banyana Banyana of South Africa coach, Desiree Ellis has stated that her team’s Group C encounter with Burundi later today is a bigger match than the previous one against the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
South Africa had a bright start to its 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) campaign with a 2-1 win over nine-time Champions, Nigeria.
“We celebrated a bit that evening because it was a huge match; it was a huge result and we worked very hard for that… Not that other teams haven’t but we prepared really well for that,” the former Banyana captain told the media in Morocco.
“Almost immediately the focus was on the next game because we always say we want to make sure that we stay focused on the task at hand.
“The next day we already started preparing for the Burundi game, because there’s very little time in between games, and you can’t go back and think about what has and hasn’t been, and what worked and what didn’t.”
Debutant, Burundi suffered a 4-2 loss to fellow debutant, Botswana, and will have a herculean task ahead of the game with one of the title favourites.
“We’ve watched Burundi over a number of matches now, against Tanzania, Uganda, and now Botswana as well. They can pose a threat and, as we said, we don’t want to underestimate any team,” Ellis said.
“Every game is a new game. From what we’ve seen they’ve played differently in most of their games, so we have to be prepared if they change again and make sure we get the three points.
“The first game was massive to get the three points [but] I think this is even bigger because it will almost give us a foot into the quarterfinals.”
South Africa and Burundi will trade tackles on Thursday with a win for South Africa securing a quarter-final qualification.
Botswana top Group C with three points and a superior goal difference ahead of South Africa.
The team will face Nigeria in the second game of the day by 9:00 pm.
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