A place in the 2024 Summer Olympics is up for grabs as South Africa vs Nigeria Super Falcons clash in the second leg of the playoffs.
The match which is scheduled to take place at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on Tuesday, 9 April 2024 at 19:30 SAST, is one fans of both arch rivals look forward to as anticipation and mind games have started to build up.
The Super Falcons defeated South Africa 1-0 last week at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
Banyana Banyana had a slow start, giving Nigeria the freedom to dominate the first half and doing most of the attacking in the final third.
The unrelenting pressure from the hosts finally paid off in the 43rd minute when defender Noko Matlou was guilty of a foul inside the box and Randy Waldrum's side were awarded a penalty.
Atletico Madrid forward Rasheedat Ajibade made no mistakes from the spot, converting the penalty to send South Africa trailing 1-0 at the break.
The reigning champions of the Women's Africa Cup of Nations came back from the half-time break a much more improved side, but failed to convert the few chances that came their way in the last 20 minutes of the skirmish.
On one end of the pitch, goalkeeper Kaylin Swart put in a decent shift to deny the hosts from extending their lead, while on the other side, Chiamaka Nnadozie was alert for the Super Eagles to deny Jermaine Seoposenwe from restoring parity for the visitors.
Despite creating scoring chances for an equalizer, the clash ended 1-0 in favour of the Super Falcons.
South Africa vs Nigeria Super Falcons: The big task ahead for Banyana Banyana
Coach Desiree Ellis will rally her side to give it their all in the second leg of the CAF Women’s Olympic qualifier after going down 1-0 to the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the first leg last Friday.
Banyana Banyana will aim to overturn the 1-0 deficit and coach Ellis is of the opinion they are still in the game and can turn things around at home in the second leg on Tuesday evening.
Ellis had these to say after South Africa lost in the first leg:
“Look, we said it was going to be a tight game but we are hopeful of overturning this result in the second leg.”
“We are still in the game. We created a couple of chances, a penalty decided the match but the game is not over.”
“I thought in the second half, we raised our game a lot and created good chances and could have equalized. Maybe we could also have gotten a penalty at the end when Jermaine was fouled but I’m very proud of the team and we will take it back to Pretoria.”
Nigeria and South Africa won the hearts of many football fans across Africa and the world in the last FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia where both teams made it to the round of 16.
And for these giants of women's football in Africa, the next major tournament to shine brightly and challenge for is the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Unfortunately, only one of these sides will pick one of the two available CAF slots to represent the continent in the Olympic Football Tournament.
The Super Falcons failed to appear in the last three editions of the Summer Olympics, they've made three previous appearances and are aiming for their fourth showing.
On the other hand, Banyana Banyana are looking to compete in the Olympics for the third time in their history.
Will it be Nigeria who flies the famous green-white-green or will it be South Africa who flies the rainbow flag in Paris?
Match officials of the South Africa vs Nigeria Super Falcons Olympic qualifier
Just like in the first leg, North African referees have once again been given the nod by the Confederation of African Football to take charge of the clash.
Dorsaf Ganouati will be the centre referee, while Houda Afine (Tunisia) and Yara Atef Said Abdelfattah of Egypt will serve as the first and second assistant referee with Emma Ajbouni (Tunisia) assigned as the fourth official.
The Commissioner of the match will be Cindy Dludlu of Eswatini, and the referee assessor will be Agar Mezing of Cameroon.
South Africa vs Nigeria Super Falcons – where to watch the match live
The game will be available on the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) YouTube account for Nigerian fans. But for South African fans, the clash will be live on SABC Sport channel.
We advise fans to also be on the lookout for live updates on the Super Falcons page on X as well as the Banyana Banyana page on X.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 months ago
