South Africa vs Senegal: From the pot and into the fire!
When Senegal line up against the reigning African champions South Africa, the Teranga Lionesses will have faced every team that made it to the podium at the last edition of the TotalEnergies WAFCON three years ago in Morocco.
In a tough Group A, Senegal opened with a resounding 4-0 victory before losing narrowly to Zambia 2-3 and Morocco 0-1 and will now face the Banyana Banyana in their second straight quarterfinals at Africa’s flagship competition.
Gunning for history
Competing in their third WAFCON, Senegal are on course to writing a new chapter in their history. If Moussa Cisse’s side overcome the defending champions on Saturday, July 19 at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda, Morocco, they will have achieved their target which is to better their last performance.
“This matchup is in favour of South Africa. They are the favourites, and we are the challengers. We need to throw everything at this game. If we win, it will be our first time to go to the semifinals, and we shall have done that by beating the champions of Africa. We need to have confidence going into this game. We do not have pressure. If we put up a good performance, we can write a new chapter in Senegalese Football,” Cisse says calmly.
“We had a difficult path to reach the quarterfinals and despite that, we qualified. That was our first objective. We did well against the DR Congo before facing two good teams [Zambia and Morocco who finished third and second at the WAFCON 2022]. Now, we must pay more attention to detail. We must look ahead to the game against South Africa and look to improve from our mistakes made in these three games,” he adds.
This is the second meeting between these two teams at the WAFCON with South Africa winning 1-0 at the 2012 edition in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. However, the two teams met in two friendly games in Thies last year with Senegal forcing a 1-1 draw in their first encounter before South Africa won 2-0 in the second tie at the same venue.
Forward Pascaline Fofana Bassene affirms Cisse’s confidence, “We are motivated. We managed to come this far in the tournament so we will stay focused. We respect South Africa. They are the title holders. We are here to represent our nation and to do our best. We are going to play, and we shall see what happens. Hopefully, we will be great.”
Senegal have scored six goals at this WAFCON edition – four against the DR Congo and two against Zambia with five of them coming in the first half. In their 10 games at the WAFCON, Senegal have never been involved in a goalless draw and nine of those games have been decided in open play with the only draw being the 1-1 with Zambia at the 2022 edition that went to penalties at the quarterfinal stage. The latter won 4-2 on penalties.
Pursuit of legacy and greatness
South Africa’s head coach Dr Desiree Ellis is undefeated in open play at the WAFCON over three editions currently standing at 14 games including 11 wins and three draws while keeping eight clean sheets. This will be South Africa’s second straight quarterfinal having edged Tunisia 1-0 at the last edition three years ago.
“We trust the process. If you underestimate a team, before you notice it, the game has gone. We have played Senegal before, but this is a completely new game, new part of the competition,” Ellis says with a serious face. “We shall continue to rely on our teamwork. Our players shine within the framework of a team. Everyone works for the other.”
South Africa have scored seven goals at this WAFCON and all of them are by seven different players including Bambanani Mbane, Hildah Magaia, Jermaine Seoposenwe, Lebohang Ramalepe, Linda Motlhalo, Refiloe Jane and Ronnel Donnelly.
“We are happy that it is not one player that is scoring, otherwise, we become easy to nullify. Our goals come from different paths – high places where we’ve won the ball…it makes it more difficult for our opponents to strategize. An individual does not score a goal by themselves. It comes from teamwork,” Ellis explains with passion.
Ramalepe has had a goal involvement in each of South Africa’s games thus far including making two assists against Ghana and Tanzania as well as scoring a goal in their last game against Mali. She has also created six chances – the most by a South African player. This could be thanks to her switch from the usual right back position to right wing.
Ellis will look towards Banyana Banyana first choice goalkeeper Andile Dlamini who is yet to concede a goal having featured in two games against Ghana and Mali making five saves in each game - a save less than she made in the six games in the 2022 edition (11).
Asked about the height advantage of the Senegalese, Ellis smiles and says, “We are not going to grow taller in the next five seconds. We know what we are about. We have a plan that we shall execute to our abilities.”
At the heart of Banyana Banyana’s offensive charge is Motlhalo who continues to find her rhythm in the competition. She says, “We have played Senegal before. They are growing. Looking at them now, there is a huge difference. There are players who have now signed overseas. They are looking very good. We shall see.”
Pedigree or New Chapter?
Whatever happens on Saturday, history awaits both teams. Should South Africa win, they will come closer to defending their title and should Senegal emerge victorious, they will go to the semifinals for the very first time. It is this suspense that will cast a cloud of tension in Oujda.
Since their loss to Ghana in 2016, the Banyana Banyana have won five games against West African opposition in open play defeating Nigeria twice in 2018 and 2022, Mali twice in 2018 and 2025 as well as Ghana at the ongoing competition. The other game was a goalless draw against the Super Falcons in 2018 that they lost 4-3 on penalties.
Even though it looks like the odds are against Senegal, both teams have a 20% shot conversion with South Africa scoring seven goals in their group games and Senegal netting six times. Both teams have faced 13 shots on target with South Africa conceding just once while Senegal have conceded three goals.
A game that could be decided by fine margins is expected to produce fireworks in the last fixture in the Oriental Province with a trip to Casablanca for the semifinals on the line.