Banyana Banyana midfielder Gabriela Salgado says they are peaking at the right time at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) in Morocco, where they have a quarterfinal clash against Senegal on Saturday.
SA started the tournament with a 2-0 win over Ghana, where they played in patches, and followed that with a disappointing 1-1 draw against Tanzania. They wrapped up the group stages with a convincing 4-0 victory over Mali that signalled Banyana’s intent to defend their 2022 title.
Coach Desiree Ellis’ team meet unpredictable Senegal, who progressed to the knockout stage as one of the three best third-placed finishers, at Stade d’Honneur in Oujda, where they played all three group games. The game takes place at 9pm SA time.
“We did have a bumpy start but it is normal in a tournament. We came from our clubs and we have worked very hard to implement what the coach worked on at training,” Salgado said.
“Some days things didn’t go according to plan but our hard work on the training field paid off. Things came together at the perfect time and we are ready for the remainder of the tournament. We know what is expected of us, we understand each other much better and we are going to give our best to progress to the next round.
“We are going to need each other and support from South Africans back home. We will go out there to give our best and hopefully get the result we want,” Salgado said.
Salgado said SA had a good idea of what to expect from Senegal, who lost two and won one of their group-stage matches.
“We have watched clips of their games because we do a lot of video sessions to analyse opposition, so we have a good game plan going into the match. We have to go out there and stick to the plan. It is a crucial game. We have the country expecting us to do well and we also owe it to ourselves because we want to defend the title.”
Salgado missed out on the last Wafcon due to injury and is happy to have made her tournament debut.
“It is an honour being here. It has not been an easy tournament because every team has come out to beat us but we have stood together and we are in the quarterfinal stage.”
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