Banyana Banyana face Nigeria in crucial second chance for World Cup qualification

Desiree Ellis says Banyana Banyana must seize their “very big opportunity” when they face Nigeria in Casablanca on Thursday in the opening step towards qualifying for next year’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

The match will take place at Moulay Rachid Stadium at 10pm South Africa time, with both teams attempting to secure one of the two places allocated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in the intercontinental play-offs.

South Africa and Nigeria are the winners of the last two editions of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, but neither side secured automatic qualification for next year’s global tournament. Both were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Wafcon, with Banyana Banyana losing to hosts Morocco and Nigeria being defeated by Cameroon.

That has left the two African heavyweights needing to take the longer route to 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 hopes the pain of the 2-1 defeat by Morocco will provide extra 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.

The play-off route will be contested in two stages between the end of this year and the beginning of next year.

Six teams will take part in the preliminary phase at a centralised venue in November and December. The field will include two nations from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), two from CAF, one from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and the lower-ranked team from the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol).

Those six teams will be divided into three tiers and will play a set of predetermined matches. Teams from the same confederation will not be allowed to meet. The two best-performing nations from the preliminary phase will progress to the final stage.

They will then join four teams who have received byes into the final phase: two from the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf), one from the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) and the higher-ranked Conmebol representative.

The final phase will feature single knockout matches, with the last three World Cup places decided through those fixtures.

The teams will be positioned according to the latest Fifa rankings. The three highest-ranked sides will be seeded into separate pathways, while the remaining teams will be drawn against them. Nations from the same confederation cannot be placed in the same pathway.

For Banyana Banyana and Nigeria, Thursday’s meeting is therefore a decisive first test in a demanding qualification process. Ellis, however, views the opportunity to recover from their Wafcon disappointment as one South Africa must embrace.

Ndebele is in Morocco courtesy of Banyana Banyana sponsor Sasol.