Johannesburg– The South African women’s national team, Banyana Banyana find themselves in an unfavourable situation following a 1 – 1 draw against Ghana in their second match of the African Women’s Championship campaign, played at Independence stadium last night.

Banyana Banyana put on an impressive show and with a bit of luck could have collected maximum points against Ghana to keep their hopes of getting out of the group stages alive.

“We and Ghana were both in the same situation and we remained in the same situation. We now need to win our respective final games to progress to the next stage. We started-off well in the first half but we struggled a bit in the second. It was a tough match for us. Ghana stayed dangerous till the last minute, I can only compliment my players for their fighting spirit,” commented Banyana Banyana coach, Vera Pauw, after the match.

After losing their first match 1 – 0 to Cameroon last Sunday and playing to a draw last night, Banyana Banyana and Ghana are now joint bottom of the log in group B with only one point from two matches each.

All is not lost yet for the Sasol sponsored women’s national team when looking at the other team’s points in the group. With one more match to be played to determine which two teams proceed to the semi-finals, Cameroon have 6 points, Algeria with 3, while Banyana Banyana and Ghana are sitting with a point each.

Cameroon beat Algeria 2 – 0 earlier before the South Africans took to the field against Ghana, thus leaving the group open and giving South Africa a chance to make amends in their last match which is against Algeria.

Pauw said “We are very relieved that we are still in the tournament, thanks to Cameroon for beating Algeria. We are still in the competition and have a chance to proceed to the next round.”

South Africa has to finish among the top three teams at the tournament to qualify for the 2015 African Women’s Championship, scheduled for Canada.
-TDN
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