South Africa’s Banyana Banyana midfielder, Gabriela Salgado, has expressed confidence ahead of their highly anticipated semi-final clash against Nigeria’s Super Falcons in the ongoing Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
This will be the first time both African powerhouses meet in the WAFCON semi-finals since the 2016 edition held in Cameroon.
Back then, a stunning second-half free-kick volley from former Nigerian forward Desire Oparanozie sealed a narrow 1-0 win for the Falcons.
However, South Africa have since shown their growth and resilience, notably defeating the Super Falcons 2-1 in the group stage opener of the 2022 WAFCON, also hosted by Morocco.
Looking ahead to Tuesday’s semi-final showdown, Salgado, who made her WAFCON debut this year and converted her spot-kick during a penalty shootout win over Senegal, is upbeat about her side’s preparation and mindset.
“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 during Monday’s pre-match 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 most recent meeting between the two sides came earlier this year during the final round of qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Super Falcons edged out their South African rivals 1-0 on aggregate, sealing a return to the Olympic stage for the first time since their last appearance at Beijing 2008.
