Having finished second in group B, Sasol Banyana Banyana will take on Nigeria on Wednesday, 22 October, in the semi-finals of the African Women’s Championship at Sam Nujoma Stadium.

The match will kick-off at 17h00.

Banyana Banyana got-off to a shaky start in this year’s tournament which is underway in Windhoek, Namibia. From the three matches they played in group B, Banyana Banyana only managed to get four points. They lost 0 – 1 to Cameroon in their first match and drew 1 – 1 with Ghana in the second match, and managed a great 5 – 1 win against Algeria.

Banyana Banyana find themselves in the same scenario they were at the 2012 African Women’s Championship in Equatorial Guinea, where they met Nigeria in the semi-finals.

Nigeria will be looking for revenge against South Africa after Banyana Banyana knocked them out of the competition in Bata, Equatorial Guinea in 2012. Banyana Banyana won that match 1 – 0 with Captain Janine Van Wyk scoring the goal.

“We have to take it step by step, we shouldn’t be looking back at 2012, as it was a completely different situation that we were in. We had a different coach and played a different style of football. Yes we get motivation from the game we played with Nigeria in 2012 because we know we can beat them. But tomorrow’s game is going to be a tough one, they have a totally new squad as well and a lot of players that have come from the U/20 world cup in their team. We looking forward to the game, we are hundred percent focused on our task,” said Van Wyk.

Sasol Banyana Banyana finished second in group B with four points, while Nigeria finished top of group A with nine points. The Sasol sponsored women’s national team will be looking to go past Nigeria to reach the finals of this year’s tournament.

Van Wyk said “We keep reminding the other players that Nigeria can be beaten, we beat them before. It will require team work and every single position on the field needs to work, if we do that together we can come out victorious once again.”

The African Women’s Championships will be used as qualifiers for the 2015 Women’s World Cup.

South Africa finished second at the 2012 edition of the Championship in Equatorial Guinea after losing to hosts 4 – 0 in the final.