2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers: ‘We Can Beat Super Falcons In Second Leg’ – South Africa Coach, Desire Ellis 

2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers: ‘We Can Beat Super Falcons In Second Leg’ – South Africa Coach, Desire Ellis 

South Africa’s female national football team coach, Desiree Ellis, characterized their 0-1 defeat to Nigeria’s Super Falcons as “just the first half.”

According to Ellis, the initial leg of the final round of the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers, held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja on Friday night, marked only the beginning, with a lot left to contest in the return leg in South Africa.

The match was decided by a penalty converted by captain Rasheedat Ajibade in the 42nd minute, resulting in a slim victory for Nigeria.

Following the game, Ellis commended her team’s performance, emphasizing that facing Nigeria is always a challenging task.

“We knew it was going to be a tight game. We lost a couple of chances, and the penalty decided the game. The game is not over, but I am very proud of the team.

“We need to have a look at the video footage and see where we can exploit because I thought that defensively we were very sound up until that penalty; we created a couple of chances.

“We also have lots of players coming from injury and not playing out 90 minutes. They will be better in the second leg.

“So for us, it’s just half time; we will be better in the next half,” she said.

The focus has now shifted to the return leg scheduled for Tuesday at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

The Banyana team will return to Johannesburg on Saturday morning, while the Super Falcons will depart Lagos for South Africa on Sunday night.