…South Africa Girls May be out If they lose next game.
Deportivo Coruna player, Hilda Magaia on Friday gave Ivory Coast a terrible heartache when she collected a thorough pass from team mate R. Lonely to score a last minute equalizer in 90+9 minute of play to give Banyana Banyana of South Africa a chance to share game points with Ivory Coast in Group B.
Ivory Coast leading confidently with two goals at half time allowed the South Africans to rally round to get a good share of honours.
Grace-Ruth Sery who plays midfield in Holland had secured a brace through Ouedraogo N. In the 18th minute and through same mate to score again in the 36th minute before they went on break.
Thembi Kgatlana on resumption of the 2nd half got the 1st goal for South Africa in the 71st minute.
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South Africa greatly dominated the match from the start having 11-4 shots at goal; 5-2 on target and secured 4-0 corner kicks advantage. The Banyana meaning Girls had 63-37% ball possessions stringing 395-228 passes with 1-2 yellow cards. South Africa ought to have won outrightly but the Ivorien Goalkeeper saved three glaring chances while the South African defenders protected their Goalie who did not need to save daring shots at goal.
Both sides met twice before with each country winning a game and scoring 2 goals each. On 24th September 2014 South Africa won a friendly 2-1 but on 24th October 2014 Ivory Coast won a WAFCON match by a lone goal in a 3rd place match in Namibia before Ref Lilia Abdeljaoued of Tunisia. That year, Oshoala wrecked South Africa with her brace in a 2-1 Win in the 1st Semifinal while Ivory Coast lost to Cameroon 1-2. Nigeria lifted the trophy beating Cameroon 2-0 in the final.
Of course that was the best achievement of Ivory Coast ranked 72 who inexplicably are in the tournament for the 2nd time.
South Africa ranked 57 are their for the 13th time and we’re champions in 2022.
Ivory Coast leads with 4 points, Tanzania is 2nd with 3 points in one game, South Africa is 3rd with one point and may be out if they lose their next match to Burkina Faso that is at the bottom of the group table now.
Burkina Faso is taking on Tanzania at 9pm in the other Group B match.
Tomorrow Saturday at 6pm Egypt will contend with debutante Malawi who were conquerors of the defending champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria at 6pm while Nigeria plays a game of survival against Zambia that crushed Egypt 6-0 the highest team goals haul in the tournament.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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