Banyana Banyana of South Africa head coach, Desiree Ellis could not hide her disappointment after the African champions failed to secure a berth at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Ellis’ side were held to a 0-0 draw by the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the second leg of their fourth round tie at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, on Tuesday night.
Nigeria edged the contest 1-0 on aggregate.
Banyana looked flat and struggled to break down the Super Falcons defence during the match.
Ellis could not hide her frustrations after seeing her miss out on the Olympics for the second consecutive time.
“We knew that coming into this game, we needed to score. We also knew that we needed to score as early as possible because the longer the game went on, the more desperate we would become,” she was quoted by The Sowetan.
“We didn’t start well. We changed the formation slightly because we needed to score and we went with three up front. They got the chance early on and that’s the only opportunity they got in the half.
“But we didn’t go forward as much as we wanted in the first half. We made a couple of changes in the second half and threw the kitchen sink at them unfortunately, that elusive goal didn’t go in.
“And for that, we are very disappointed. We also know the fans are disappointed, but I think we can be very proud of this team. They gave it their best shot.”
