Paris 2024 Qualifiers: Ellis cautions against complacency despite convincing victory over Tanzania

Banyana Banyana coach, Desiree Ellis has cautioned against the trap of falling into complacency in the return leg of the third round of Paris 2024 Qualifiers against Tanzania. 

The reigning CAF Women’s Coach of the Year and her charges had a successful trip to Tanzania on Friday, 23 February where goals from the attacking trio of Jermaine Seopesenwe, Thembi Kgatlana and Hildah Magaia secured a 3-0 away victory for the reigning African champions. 

Banyana Banyana, who have featured twice at the Olympics (2012, 2016) are looking at making a return to the global showpiece, which will have two spots reserved for Africa. 

Commenting post the convincing victory, Ellis said she was happy with the result but believed that her team could still play even better. 

“I am very happy with the result, but I also know that we can play way better. I think we can only get better from here onwards. The (domestic) league hasn't started so it was expected that we might struggle a bit and be rusty playing against a Tanzanian team who's got mostly local players and they've played ten league matches so far,” said Ellis.  

While a three-goal advantage seems to be quite a comfortable position to be in ahead of the return leg, the former Banyana Banyana captain says the job must be finished at home and that there was no room for complacency. 

“We have to finish the job back home. We don't want to become complacent. The next goal in the match could change things and we have to score the next goal and once that is over you know then we'll worry on who we'll have to face, be it Nigeria be it Cameroon. We still have a job to do. We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we want to make sure that we finish the job”, concluded Ellis.