Simphiwe Dludlu’s girls made a meal of the Zebras in the second group game to make it into the last four of the competition
South Africa booked a semi-final berth at the Cosafa U17 Women’s Cup courtesy of a dominant 5-1 win over Botswana in their second Group B encounter on Monday.
Oyisa Maharzi grabbed a brace to take her tally to eight goals in the competition with Tiyana Carollissen, Christy Noble and Jessica Wade also getting on the scoresheet for South Africa.
Following a 28-0 humiliation of Seychelles, Bantwana were aiming to advance with a triumph against the Young Zebras and they started brightly with Maharzi’s opener after just two minutes.
In the 29th minute, captain Wade doubled the lead but Pearl Sikwane pulled one back to keep Botswana in the mix seven minutes from half time at the Francois Xavier Stadium.
After the restart, Carollissen increased the tally four minutes into the half before Maharzi extended the lead on the hour mark and Noble sealed the semi-final ticket with a game to spare.
Despite already booking their last four spot the former Banyana Banyana star is delighted by the feat but insists they will leave nothing to chance against Madagascar on Wednesday.
“This was a tough match for both teams as we expected,” Dludlu told Safa.net.
“Botswana is a very well structured team and we knew that they would come at us with their pace and playing the ball behind our defence, with their long balls.
“I am happy that the girls managed to get the win, but more importantly they kept their shape, managed to recover from their errors and fought for possession, which are some of the fundamentals we are trying to teach them.
“We are still in our building phase and it is great that the players are growing with each training session and match because we are still going to face some very strong opponents, who can keep the ball, fight for the ball and also have an appetite for goals.”
Be the first to comment