Banyana tame Lionesses

South Africa’s senior women’s national team, Banyana Banyana, ended their tour of Senegal on a high as they beat their hosts 2-0 at the Stade Lat Dior in Thies.

Amogelang Motau and Noxolo Cesane got the goals for Banyana in the first half. After playing to a disappointing one-all draw in the first match, coach Desiree Ellis made wholesale changes to her starting line-up, which paid off.

Ellis continued to ring the changes at halftime, bringing in Linda Motlhalo for Kholosa Biyana and Sibulele Holweni for Motau, while Senegal also made four changes to try to change the shape of the game.

Banyana dominated the attack and kept on piling the pressure on the Senegalese, which saw them revert to their physical game, earning Sylla Coumba a red card in the 67th minute after dangerous play led to an injury to goalkeeper, Kaylin Swart.

Swart was later substituted in the 72nd minute by Kebotseng Moletsane, who earned her 4th official Banyana Banyana cap, when the starting choice could not continue with the match.

The two friendlies were in preparation for South Africa’s defence of their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title later this year in Morocco.

Ellis was quite complimentary of her team after the match.

“The gameplan worked really well in terms of control in all areas of the pitch. The scoreline could have been more from the chances we created, but today really showed the quality of football that we want to play. ” she said

🗣Coach Desiree Ellis speaking post victory against Senegal in the 2️⃣nd international friendly

1st match 🇸🇳1️⃣- 1️⃣🇿🇦
2nd match 🇸🇳0️⃣-2️⃣🇿🇦@SasolinSport pic.twitter.com/9JMbE4N48u

— Banyana_Banyana (@Banyana_Banyana) June 4, 2024

“We played to our strengths today after looking at our errors in the first match, and that is how we managed to dominate the entire match,” said Ellis.

“We are happy with the performance we saw today and will continue to build on it.”