Desiree Ellis laments South Africa’s failure to qualify for 2024 Olympics after goalless draw with Super Falcons

The coach of the South African female national team, Desiree Ellis, has decried the inability of the Bayana Bayana to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics after settling for a goalless draw with the Super Falcons of Nigeria in the second leg of the qualifiers played in Pretoria.

The Nigerian women’s team put up an impressive performance at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria against South Africa’s Banyana Banyana during the second leg of their last qualifying match on Tuesday night.

The West African women’s soccer team qualified for the Olympics by holding the reigning African champions to a goalless draw, advancing 1-0 on aggregate after a 16-year absence.

Following their qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Super Falcons will now square up against Brazil, Spain and Japan during the games, which will be staged in a few months.

While reacting to her team’s 0-0 draw with the Nigerian national team, Ellis said that their failure to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is a setback to women’s football in South Africa.

“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 go but didn’t go to the next round,” a visibly disappointed Ellis said in her post-match.

“Likewise, we didn’t go to the Olympics because of this, it will take a while to recover from this.” She added.