Controlling the tempo of the match will be key to Banyana Banyana when they clash with Algeria in the second leg of the African Women’s Cup of Nations qualifier at Stade Omar Hamadi in Algiers on Wednesday evening (19h00).
This is what Banyana coach Desiree Ellis said as they go into this match with a 2-0 lead from the first leg, which was played at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto last Friday.
“If we have the ball, the opponent can’t play. We need to protect the ball much better and make sure that if we can’t go forward, we go sideways or backwards, but let’s not force it. Let’s move the ball. We also worked on other things. They will come at us, we are not a team that sits back. We want to play,” Ellis said.
The former Banyana midfielder fully understands that the Algerians are going to come at them in an effort to overturn the score.
“They will come hammer and tongs. We must stay concentrated. When we get a chance, we have to be clinical. We have to control the tempo of the game, up it when we have to, slow it down and almost make them play at our tempo,” the Cape Town-born coach said.
