The first-ever international between the African champions Banyana Banyana and Denmark will be played at the Aalborg Stadium in Denmark on Friday.
Banyana will use the opportunity to measure themselves against quality opposition, as well as to prepare for the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers early next year.
The two international friendlies against Denmark and England will be used to gain much-needed international experience to successfully defend their Wafcon title in Morocco next year.
The pressure continues to build for Banyana Banyana as they will be tested this evening against a team that is ranked 12th in the world, compared to South Africa’s 50th place on the FIFA rankings.
And the expectations are that the African Champions will deliver a top-quality performance in this high-profile friendly match. The two international friendlies will be the first to be played since the last two away matches in June which ended in a one-all draw and 2-0 victory over Senegal.
Coach Desiree Ellis admits the players are a bit rusty but committed.
“Started a bit rusty yesterday. But I think as the session got on it got better and better. So, really excited and enthusiastic, you know we worked on a few things obviously haven’t played in a couple of months so we just getting them to gel together, and I thought it went really well. I was impressed because after a long while you don’t know what to expect but I think the players are really committed to doing well on this tour. We all know what we are preparing for, it’s the Wafcon and I think everybody needs to raise their hands.”
Banyana are a dangerous attacking team which is what made them Wafcon champions and a competitive unit at the 2023 FIFA World Cup in Australasia.
They also remain one of the hardest teams to beat. And Ellis wants her players to display all their qualities with confidence against the red and white of Denmark.
“We’ve always been a team that has been defensively sound and we want to go back to being that team that is well organized and that’s where we are going to create opportunities obviously, we need to start putting more shots at target, if you put more target on shots you have more opportunities to score but it’s all about the performance I think, the performance will be the good results because sometimes you can play badly and still win but we need to look at improved performances,” Ellis explains.
After this evening’s match, Banyana will cross the channel to the United Kingdom to face off against European champions England, in Coventry on Tuesday evening.
They will then return to South Africa and turn their attention to the next international friendly match against the Reggae Queens of Jamaica in November.
Video: 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations – Banyana leaving nothing to chance
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Publish date : 2024-10-25 07:19:00
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The post Banyana Banyana to play Denmark in first-ever international match – SABC News first appeared on Love Europe.
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Publish date : 2024-10-25 17:07:44
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