‘Now teams will sit up and take notice’

Banyana Banyana midfielder Refiloe Jane (right) says their 7-1 hammering of Equatorial Guinea has sent a strong message to their next opponents in the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Ghana.

The national women’s team have recorded two wins in two games here, including a fine win over tournament favourites Nigeria, putting them at the summit of Group B with six points, as they head into their last group stage match against Zambia in Accra tomorrow.

“The win has given us confidence and we also want to send a message to other teams that we are definitely here to play. It’s good going into the last group stage game with six points with a lot of goals and only one against us,” said the Banyana vice-captain, who plays her football for Canberra United in Australia.

Jane was on the scoresheet against Equatorial Guinea after coming on as a second-half substitute, while Linda Motlhalo, Nompumelelo Nyandeni, Jermaine Seoposenwe, Amanda Mthandi also scored a goal each and Thembi Kgatlana netted twice.

However, Jane said the team appeared to relax after scoring their first two goals and had to sort themselves out in the second half The half-time score was only 2-1.

“It wasn’t an easy win looking at the way we started the game, scoring two goals and them pulling one back. That gave them some confidence that they could still come back into the game and they tried to make things difficult for us,” she continued.

“I think sometimes we just get carried away, we thought we had the game in our hands and became a bit complacent. But then the goal they scored gave us a wake-up call and we realised anything could happen and that we had to play to the final whistle.”

Going into the final group stages game Banyana, who are on six points only need a draw to top the group and advance to the semifinals.