Banyana must work for victory against Morocco - Ellis

Pressure is on Banyana Banyana, who will need nerves of steel to deal with the 12th man - Moroccan fans - at Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat in Morocco on Friday night.

The Atlas Lionesses will welcome their South African nemesis in the quarterfinals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) match.

Morocco will definitely launch a two-pronged attack to win the game, and will get their fans behind them so that they confuse their opponents.

Victory will not only see Morocco advance to the next stage of this event, but it will serve as a revenge after being beaten at home 2-1 by Banyana Banyan in the finals in 2022.

Banyana’s start in their bid to defend this trophy was not what millions of South Africans, who are behind their national team, aspired.

They lost 2-0 to Tanzania and drew 2-2 with Ivory Coast. Banyana beat Burkina Faso 1-0.

The general feeling is that the defending champions will need to be at their best against the Moroccans, who completed the group stage without a loss.

They beat Kenya 4-0 and narrowly defeated Kenya by 1-0 and drew 0-0 with Algeria.

Coach Desiree Ellis made it clear after her side’s win against Stallions Ladies that nobody will give Banyana anything on the silver platter.

“We’re not gonna get anything from any team; we’ve got to work for it,” she said. “I think it’s a different team (Morocco) with different challenges, the home crowd, all of that comes into play.

”I think our players have travelled all over Africa and have been to situations where we had no fans at all."

The game will start at 10pm.

Sowetan