South Africa coach Desiree Ellis thinks her team deserved to beat the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the semifinal of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations played on Tuesday in Casablanca, Morocco. She describes Nigeria’s winning goal as freakish.
The Nigerian ladies defeated their South African opponents 2-1 to secure a final day clash with hosts Morocco who beat Ghana via penalty shootout to reach the final.
The Falcons stepped into the game as nine times winners in search of their tenth while the Banyana Banyana ladies were the reigning champions until yesterday. The winning goal was scored by Nigeria in the added time of the second half.
Nigeria scored in the first half, courtesy of Rasheedat Ajibade from the spot and the South Africa equalized through Linda Motlhalo from the spot also in the 60th minute.
The game looked headed for extra time, but then Falcons defender Michelle Alozie scored the winner.
The South Africa coach Ellis has made a review of the 90 minutes and believes the result could have gone either way.
She said in Casablanca, “We had chances and Nigeria had theirs. They scored theirs and that’s really heartbreaking. But we showed today why we were champions. We didn’t play like we were coming off a 120 minutes game, we gave it as good as they gave it.
“We struggled early on, but we had the better chances after that. We didn’t just take our chances, and that kept Nigeria in the game.
“I’d say Nigeria’s second goal was a freakish goal because everyone missed it, including the goalkeeper.
“Those are chances that you can’t defend. I don’t think if you look at the balance of the Performances we deserved to lose today, but we deserved to lose.”
The South African since deployed for their journey back home as the Super Falcons get set for a super battle with Morocco on Saturday, July 26.
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