Banyana Banyana face Nigeria in crucial World Cup qualification play-off

Banyana Banyana will begin another route to next year’s World Cup when they meet Nigeria at Moulay Rachid Stadium in Casablanca on Thursday (22:00 SA time), with coach Desiree Ellis describing the opportunity as one they must seize.

South Africa and Nigeria were expected to challenge for automatic qualification after winning the past two editions of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon). However, both sides missed out after quarter-final defeats at the tournament, South Africa losing to hosts Morocco and Nigeria being beaten by Cameroon.

Their setbacks mean the two African heavyweights must now compete for one of Caf’s two places in the intercontinental play-offs for the World Cup in Brazil.

“It’s not a place we want to be, but we have been given another opportunity. It’s a very big opportunity to go on a very long journey, so we have to grab the opportunity with both hands. We obviously have to bring our A game … there’s no margin for error,” Ellis told a press conference in Casablanca on Wednesday.

The South Africa coach said the pain of the 2-1 loss to Morocco should provide additional motivation against Nigeria’s Super Falcons.

“The disappointment of losing the previous game is going to probably drive us to get a positive result. It’s not going to be an easy game, it’s the two big guns of Africa football,” Ellis said.

Both teams arrive at the play-off stage after failing to make the semi-finals of the Wafcon. Their meeting offers one of Africa’s leading women’s football nations the chance to keep its World Cup hopes alive, while the other will face an earlier end to its qualifying campaign.

The intercontinental play-offs will take place in two stages, beginning later this year and concluding early next year.

The preliminary stage, scheduled for November and December at a centralised venue, will feature six teams. Two will come from AFC and two from Caf, with one representative from OFC and the lower-ranked team from Conmebol completing the line-up.

Those six nations will be placed into three tiers and will play a predetermined set of matches. Teams from the same confederation cannot meet each other in that phase, and the two best-performing countries will progress to the final stage.

They will then join four teams receiving byes: two from Concacaf, one from Uefa and the higher-ranked Conmebol representative. The six teams in the final phase will compete in single knockout matches, with three World Cup places in Brazil available.

Fifa’s latest rankings will determine the teams’ positions before the draw. The three highest-ranked nations will be seeded into separate pathways, while the remaining teams will be drawn against them. No two teams from the same confederation may be placed in the same pathway.

Ndebele is in Morocco, courtesy of Banyana Banyana’s sponsor Sasol