Banyana Banyana forward Thembi Kgatlana is convinced of a comeback at Loftus next Tuesday after Friday night’s 1-0 away defeat to Nigeria in the first leg fixture of the final round of the 2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers.  

After a slender 1-0 defeat to the Super Falcons courtesy of a 43rd-minute penalty conversion by Athletico Madrid forward Rasheedat Ajibade, Kgatlana reflected on the game highlighting her team’s obstacles in Abuja last night.  

“I mean… it’s away and the weather is extremely humid, but I mean we can’t complain, we’ve played in West Africa many times and we have been here for a week to adjust to the weather, so it did play a huge effect but at the end of the day we had to come out and play our ball,” said Kgatlana 

The all-time 3rd Banyana top scorer pointed out Nigeria’s utility of home-ground advantage through the manipulation of facilities and further emphasized they will have to utilize the same advantage in the second leg on Tuesday.  

“The fact that they didn’t cut the grass, they know that we’re a team that moves the ball. That’s why I said in the earlier question at home there are better facilities we know that the pitch will favor us the same way it favored them”.  

“You drop the ball; it does not bounce it just lands on top so that’s what they want to do, and it worked for them, but we also have an advantage when we go home to play in better facilities.”  

Kgatlana further commented on the officiating in the match, with regards to the controversial nature of the penalty decision that made the difference on the day between the two teams.   

“I mean, we’re all going to have opinions about the referees but at the end of the day I think we need to control what we can, the referees we can’t control, it’s their decisions and at the end of the day it’s what we get,” said Kgatlana. 

Already on a 1-0 deficit, Banyana will get the last bite at the cherry to qualify for the women’s football tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics when they face the Super Falcons in the second leg on Tuesday evening at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has urged South Africans to play their part to fill up the 2010 World Cup stadium to make it difficult for the Super Falcons.