Banyana Banyana of South Africa midfielder, Gabriela Salgado, has said she and her teammates know what to do against Nigeria’s Super Falcons in Tuesday’s WAFCON semi-finals.
For the first time since the 2016 WAFCON in Cameroon, the Super Falcons and Banyana Banyana will clash in the semi-finals.
At the 2016 edition former striker Desire Oparanozie’s second half free-kick volley, earned the Falcons a 1-0 win.
However, Banyana beat the nine-time African champions 2-1, in their opening group match at the 2022 also in Morocco.
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Looking ahead to Tuesday’s contest Salgado, who made her WAFCON debut in this year’s tournament and scored against the Lionesses of Teranga in the penalty shootout, said they are up for the Super Falcons challenge.
“We know we’re going into the semifinal game, it’s going to be a challenge, but we are physically and mentally prepared. We know the responsibility we hold, and we just look forward to a good game and hopefully finishing it within the 90 minutes,” Salgado said in Monday’s press conference.
“Every game that we play we take our lessons, and we obviously take it into the next game and improving what we learned from that game. Just going into this game, I think the Senegal game of course brought us together as a team, we saw the desire, the hunger in each other’s eyes and it brought us just closer together knowing how we’ll need each other going into the next game.
“I think the team is prepared, we’re ready, we know what we have to do, and I think everyone is just on the same page and we are excited for the game.”
The last time the two teams clashed was in the final qualifying round of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Falcons triumphed 1-0 on aggregate, to qualify for the football event of the Olympic games for the first time since Beijing 2008.
By James Agberebi
