8 June 2018 – Striker Leandra Smeda, the only scorer of the solitary goal in the CAF Women’s Nations Cup qualifier first leg against Lesotho, is confident that the Sasol-sponsored Banyana Banyana will finish off the job on Sunday.
The second leg will take place at Dr Petrus Molemela Stadium and the match is scheduled to kick off at 15h00.
Smeda said the win away was crucial but the Sunday’s game was still going to be tricky as Lesotho would want to try a few tricks in their bag.
“As a team we need to be positive and we have the momentum on our side and on Sunday we should finish off the job.
“We have been doing a lot of goal-scoring training, almost on a daily basis because scoring is something we have been lacking of late. We should score goals because the only way you win matches is by putting the ball into the back of the net,” said Smeda.
The hard-running striker said Lesotho were likely to crack under sustained pressure on Sunday, more so with the expected huge crowd behind the team.
“We are hoping to get a good crowd, we always get a good crowd wherever we go and we hope the fans will come out in their thousands and back us through and through,” added Smeda.
Meanwhile, captain Refiloe Jane said the morale in the team was very high adding that 1-0 win away was good enough especially away from home.
“We did what we had to do, we will take that goal and on Sunday we should finish off the match because everyone in the team is looking forward to the game and getting a good result.
“Going into the game on Sunday will definitely be an advantage to us, we saw with the visits we have done here in Bloemfontein that there is excitement everywhere and we should definitely reward our fans,” said Jane.
The captain said fans should come in their numbers to support Banyana Banyana because the more supporters in the stadium the better for the home team.
“We need that support on Sunday. It was not easy to break their defence at home because they defended with numbers to minimise the damage but definitely it won’t help them to sit back when they are already trailing. So they will try to be adventurous which should help our attacking strategy.”
The overall winner of the two-legged qualifier will qualify for the CAF Women Nations Cup finals in Ghana in November this year in which the three top teams from the African continent will qualify for the FIFA World Cup in France 2019.