Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis said they always knew goalkeeper Andile Dlamini could save a penalty or two if Saturdays Womens Africa Cup of Nations Wafcon quarterfinal against Senegal came to a shoot-out and praised her teams resilience in prevailing.
With both teams having had their chances though South Africa shading those but unable to break down a tall, physical Senegal the game went to the dreaded shoot-out at Stade dHonneur in Oujda. Dlamini pulled off two huge saves that saw Banyana win 4-1 and progress to their semifinal against Nigeria at Stade El Arbi Zaouli in Casablanca on Tuesday 6pm Moroccan and South African time.
Weve been practising penalties and we knew which kickers there were going to be for Senegal and thats why we made the changes we did, Ellis said afterwards.
We always knew Andile could save one or two shes done it before.
By the way, this is our first penalty shoot-out win at Wafcon we lost in 2006 and in 2018 in the final.