Ellis wary of fatigue ahead of Banyana semifinal clash against Nigeria
South Africa meet Nigeria in the Women's Africa Cup of Nations of Nations semifinals on Tuesday (6pm, SA time) at Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca, Morocco.
Banyana struggled to overcome the tough Lionesses of Terenga until penalties came to the rescue with goalkeeper Andile Dlamini saving two of them. The tough south-vs-west battle in Oujda had ended in a goalless draw after extra time.
Nigeria thumped Zambia 5-0 in their quarterfinal on Friday.
๐ ๐๐ธ๐ฝโ๐โ ๐๐๐๐ ๐
โฝ๏ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: Bambanani Mbane converts and send Banyana Banyana to the semi-finals!
๐ฟ๐ฆ โ โ โ โ
๐ธ๐ณ โ โโ
๐จ LIVE
๐บ SABC 3
๐ฑ https://t.co/26PdrPrnVE #SABCSportFootball #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2024 pic.twitter.com/JIB4mjdLyS
โ SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) July 19, 2025
The semifinal between the two powerhouses of African women's football will be hugely anticipated after South Africa beat record 11-time winners Nigeria in the group stage of the 2022 Wafcon, also in Morocco, on the way to Banyana's first title. The 2-1 loss was the Super Falcons' first in the group stages in 20 years.
Ellis is concerned her team night not have had enough time to recover for the matchup on Tuesday.
'We are not thinking about Nigeria right now, we will think about the next match tomorrow [on Sunday]. Let's celebrate what we have done,' Ellis said after Saturday's match.
๐ ๐๐ธ๐ฝโ๐โ ๐๐๐๐ ๐
โฝ๏ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐: Andile Dlamini once again denies Senegal!
๐ฟ๐ฆ โ โ โ
๐ธ๐ณ โ โโ
๐จ LIVE
๐บ SABC 3
๐ฑ https://t.co/26PdrPrnVE #SABCSportFootball #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2024 pic.twitter.com/cQe6bAplmh
โ SABC Sport (@SABC_Sport) July 19, 2025
'We won't overthink anything because we want to celebrate what we have done. As a technical team, we are already standing on one side talking about how we are going to plan and how we are going to prepare because 120 minutes with a day less to prepare and a day to travel takes a lot [out of everyone].'
Ellis praised Banyana's resilience against Senegal and hopes to see the same against Nigeria.
'We have been practising penalties and we knew who our kickers were going to be and that's why we made the changes we made. We always knew Andile could save one or two; she had done [that] before.
'This was our first penalty shoot-out victory in the Wafcon. We lost it in the 2006 and 2018 finals. I don't have enough words to describe this team โ the resilience, the courage, the never-say-die attitude and the willingness to fight for each other.
'No matter what they threw at us, we were able to withstand it.'
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Next Stay Close โ She then temporarily took over the reins from Pauw in 2016 before she was finally appointed as the head coach in 2018 to date. During her stint, the 62-year-old has achieved the improbable, including winning Banyana's maiden WAFCON and qualifying for back-to-back World Cups. However, she was unable to defend the crown in Morocco recently due to an underwhelming performance, including losing to eventual champions Nigeria in the semi-final. So, where to go for Ellis? Will she resolve her contractual issues with Safa and stay put to ensure the team qualifies for the 2027 World Cup through next year's WAFCON? 'No comment!' said Ellis during her post-match press conference on Friday following the 4-3 loss to Ghana on penalties after the match ended 1-1 in regulation time. 'Because whatever it is that I am going to say right now, it's going to be taken out of context anyway. So, I'd rather say 'no comment'.' 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