Kgatlana banks on Banyana’s experience in Wafcon quarters vs Morocco

Banyana Banyanastar Thembi Kgatlana has suggested that their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) experience will help them a great deal when they meet the hosts, Morocco, in the quarterfinals. Morocco and Banyana lock horns in Rabat on Saturday not only for a spot in the tournament’s semifinals but for a place at next year’s World Cup in Brazil. This is because the four semifinalists at this Wafcon qualify for next year’s global spectacle.

Banyana, who beat Morocco in the final to win what remains their only Wafcon title in Rabat back in 2022, have played in 15 editions of this competition, having never missed it since 1995. The North Africans boast only five Wafcon appearances. “Right now the most important thing is to recover to make sure that we arrive in the quarterfinals fresh.

We have the experience … we’ve played Wafcon so many times and we understand the importance of focusing on ourselves,” Kgatlana said. We’ve always known the importance of going into the quarterfinals, so we were not just going to give up that easy Banyana — who started this tournament slowly with a defeat and a draw in their two opening Group B fixtures against Tanzania and Ivory Coast — left it late to qualify for the last eight,beating Burkina Faso 1-0courtesy of Kgatlana’s goal in their last pool game in Casablanca on Wednesday.

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Ivory Coast also did SA a huge favour by beating Tanzania 2-1 in a synchronised fixture. “We started the tournament really slowly but we started to get our momentum against Ivory Coast. We’ve always known the importance of going into the quarterfinals, so we were not just going to give up that easy,” Kgatlana said, adding that sometimes you have to grind results without playing beautiful football.

“Sometimes football isn’t nice and beautiful, with tactics. Sometimes it’s just about getting the three points to move forward and that’s what we needed. “Now everyone is happy and smiling in the locker room because they know how much it means for us to go through.”

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