Desiree Ellis proud of Banyana Banyana despite draw with Senegal

This was the first of two friendly internationals against the West Africans.

This was also the first outing for South Africa since losing to Nigeria in April in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers.

Following a goalless first half in Senegal, Nthabiseng Majiya opened the scoring in the 68th minute but the visitors conceded a penalty in referees optional time allowing the hosts to restore parity.

"Look, I think we were in complete control. We knew exactly what Senegal was going to do. We knew they were going to play the long ball and we dealt very well with that. We had a few opportunities and then we took the lead but very proud of the players, from the last match against Nigeria we only brought 12 players. From the starting lineup against Nigeria, only six players so players that don't regularly get game time, we've given them game time because we wanted to test them,” Ellis said.

“We knew they were gonna be physical and because we're so short, we set to play the ball around and I think we played a very good game of football. Unfortunately, we conceded right at the end."

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Ellis adds that she was slightly disappointed with Senegal who have good players but did not come out to play.

Turning attention to her charges, the four-time CAF Women’s Coach of the Year says however they need to defend better.

"I think in the first half we had a lot of possession but we didn't progress. We had a lot of possession on the long area of the field and we didn't progress because there was no movement up front, there were no options upfront,” the coach explained.

“We changed the formation in the second half to give us that option, created one or two chances and we didn't take them.

“Obviously, we didn't hold the last couple of minutes, we needed to defend better and make sure that we play the ball in their half. I was a bit disappointed with Senegal because they've got players that you can see can play but all they did was play the long ball and that helps us because we had planned for that. We trained for that as well and we handled that really well but we didn't take our chances."