Ellis: Zimbabwe made it difficult
BANYANA COACH: FINAL WILL BE ANOTHER TOUGH TEST
Desiree Ellis says she knew Zimbabwe were oing to give her Banyana Banyana charges a difficult time after they had to fight hard to beat their northern neighbours 3-1 in the semifinals of the Cosafa Women’s Championships at the Wolfson Stadium on Thursday.
The win saw Banyana reach the final courtesy of goals from Bambanani Mbane, Amanda Mthandi and Busisiwe Mdimeni.
Ellis said she told her players to be on top of their game, but wasn’t entirely impressed with them for not taking some of their
chances in the first half.
“We knew it was going to be a tough match, we also knew we had to be at the top of our game. We said if we had to pass the ball quicker – because we know we can create opportunities, I felt like we didn’t take our opportunities in the first half. We scored a beautiful goal, but conceded poorly. But we didn’t panic and we kept telling the players to speed the game up,” said the Banyana mentor.
“They play the same line-up most of the time and if we could speed the game up we would be able to create more opportunities. We got the second goal just before half-time – very crucial time – and we knew we had to score the third one.
“After getting the third goal we started to manage the game. But they gave us a tough time and we know that whenever we have played against them it has not an easy match. But we needed to be at the top of our game.”
Banyana will now take on Zambia in the final tomorrow and Ellis is anticipating another tough battle.
“We have only watched a few of their games, but our concentration was solely on Zimbabwe. We have to go back, really look deeper and analyse it.
“We have to come up with another game – it’s going to be another tough test. They have shown so far in the tournament that they can score goals.”