Banyana aiming to beat Tunisia and qualify for World Cup

Banyana Banyana will be looking to book a spot at the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup when they lock horns with Tunisia in the quarter-finals of the Caf Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) at Moulay Hassan FUS stadium in Morocco on Thursday.

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Thalea Smidt, who is playing at her first Wafcon is enjoying every single moment of being part of the team, says to play in the World Cup will be a dream come true for Banyana.

The midfielder is proud to have contributed to Banyana’s journey so far, with the team having qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament after winning all of their three group stages games.

“It’s been being part of the team, being able to get a chance and an opportunity and be beneficial for the team. Most importantly, helping the team to qualify for the quarter-finals, so, we know how important it was for us to get out of the group and we had our objectives and managed to top our group. Now that is out of the way and we are looking forward to the quarter-finals,” said Smidt.

“Like we did in the group stages, we are going to take it game by game and the focus is on the quarter-finals now and we know how important it is (for us to win).”

Smith added that despite the injury to their star player Thembi Kgatlana the team is still in high spirits ahead of the Tunisia clash.

“The mood in the camp hasn’t changed, the objective remains the same. Yes, we sympathise with the likes of Thembi, we know how important she is in the team. But she is a very strong minded person, for her, she didn’t want us to sympathise with her. She just wants us to continue with the objective.”