Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says missing out on a spot at this year’s Olympic Games is a huge blow for her African queens.
The African champions were left frustrated and in tears by Nigeria, as the Super Falcons booked their place in Paris, following Tuesday night’s goalless draw at Loftus Versfeld and qualifying for quadrennial showpiece thanks to last Friday’s 1-0 first-leg win in Abuja.
Having missed out on the tournament in Tokyo four years ago, Ellis says the group is gutted after achieving so much since then – winning the 2022 Wafcon and competing at the World Cup last year.
Speaking to reporters after the match, the Kaapse legend says: “It’s a big disappointment. Not just for us but for everyone involved in women’s football, because we didn’t go in 2020. We were in a similar situation where we had so many chances to – but didn’t go to the next round.
“Likewise we didn’t go to the Olympics because of this, it will take a while to recover from this though.”
Ellis says her span threw alles at Nigeria, but just couldn’t get the goals to fire them to victory.
She adds: “'We knew that coming into this game – we needed to score, we also knew that we needed to score as early as possible because the longer the game went on, the more desperate we become.
“We didn’t start well, we changed the formation slightly because we needed to score, we went with three up front – they got a chance very early on, I think that was the only chance they got in the half.
“But, we didn’t go forward as much as we wanted to in the first half. We threw the kitchen sink at them, but the goal never came.
“We’re very disappointed. But I think we gave it our best shot.”