Banyana will be looking to progress to the next round of the CAF African Women Championship when they face the Democratic Republic of Congo in their final Group A fixture, in Bata on Saturday, 3 November 2012 (17h30 kick off).
The SASOL-sponsored South African senior women’s football side are in high spirits following their 1-0 win over Senegal on Wednesday, and will go into the match in search of a win – with a draw almost certain to secure their path to the semi-finals.
Banyana Banyana head coach Joseph Mkhonza was a keen observer as hosts Equatorial Guinea crushed the Congolese side 6-0 on Wednesday, but a draw result in Bata is not a part of his strategy.
“We play football to win, and even though the hosts crushed the Democratic Republic of Congo to weaken our opponent’s goal average, we are not banking on that,” said Mkhonza.
“Our goal has always been to do our best in this tournament in a bid to improve on our African ranking of 4th and our world ranking of 56th. Being an Olympic year, it’s been busy on the 2012 calendar, but the players want to finish the campaign off in the best way possible.”
A South African win or draw in Bata will almost certainly see Amanda Dlamini’s team end second behind the host country in Group A and stay on the Equatorial Guinea mainland with a semi-final encounter against Group B powerhouse Nigeria on November 7 – Africa’s No 1 ranked side – the likely project for next week.
“We have our hopes set high on making it as far as we can in the tournament. We created plenty opportunities in the previous encounter against Senegal, and will be looking to create and capitalize on chances we create up front in the encounter against DR Congo tomorrow,” said Dlamini.
The 3rd/4th place playoff and title decider both scheduled for the 11th of November will take place at the Malabo Stadium.
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