Following their advancement to the Round of 16 of the 2023 Fifa World Cup, South Africa coach Desiree Ellis praised her team. They defeated Italy 3-2 at Wellington Regional Stadium to advance to round of 16.
Benedetta Orsi, an Italian defender, scored an own goal, Hildah Magaia also scored, and Thembi Kgatlana scored the game-winning goal in time to win it for Banyana. It was their first victory at this competition
Banyana coach Ellis said: “We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we knew what we are capable of, we trained for the last couple of games for a situation where what if we went behind and what we would do in that situation.”
But these girls are just freakin’ amazing. I speak through every challenge we had to face in the past, I mean also no one gave us a chance today, but we knew what we were capable of.”
“They fought like warriors out there today, and we said we needed to keep our best players on the pitch and we managed that by not pressing all the time. This is for everyone back home, those also who woke up in the early hours of the morning to support us. This is for everyone involved in women’s football.”
South Africa will now attempt to build on Wednesday’s historic achievement by defeating the tough Netherlands team in the Round of 16, who are just coming off a 7-0 thrashing of Vietnam in their final group encounter.
After Ellis’ girls’ victory, many supporters praised them on social media, with some claiming they were a better squad than Bafana Bafana, the men’s senior national team. South Africa will be back in action on Sunday when they meet 2019 World Cup runners-up – the Netherlands.
© Copyrights Sixsports. All Rights Reserved.