Kgatlana double keeps Banyana on the road to Paris

Banyana Banyana were made to sweat before securing their place in the next round of the Caf Olympic qualifiers on Monday, beating a stubborn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) side 2-0, courtesy of a Thembi Kgatlana brace at Orlando Stadium.

The result in the second leg of the qualifier means Desiree Ellis’ side go through 3-1 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw in Kinshasa in the first leg.

Kgatlana, who also missed a few chances, redeemed herself by scoring two goals for the Caf Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) champions.

Banyana played much better than they did in the first leg. They put the visitors under pressure, with the home side desperate to get an early goal. One of the best chances of the game came in the 30^th minute and fell to Kgatlana, but she was not able to get her final touch right.

The DRC were more than happy to defend, but looked very dangerous whenever they got a chance to go forward with their forwards Ruth Kipoyi and Narvua Kanjinga.

Meanwhile, Nicole Michaels of Banyana was looking very lively on the right side of the hosts’ attack. Towards half time, she put a dangerous cross into the DRC box, but the ball just went across the face of goal, with no Banyana player to finish it off.

The game went into half-time with the scoreline reading 0-0 and with all to play for in the second half.

Coming in from the break, Banyana still struggled to find the back of the net, despite their continuous entries into the DRC box, with the hour mark passing by without a goal.

Banyana break through

With the introduction of Kholosa Biyana, Banyana seemed to be more stronger going forward. The midfielder brought in some magic that would open the scoring for the hosts as her long ball found Michaels, who was able to beat the visitors defence with her pace before setting up Kgatlana to score into an open net, just as she did in the first leg.

With the game about to come to an end, another Michaels and Kgatlana combination saw the skipper extending Banyana’s lead, taking the pressure off the team as they went on to win the match.