HOPE springs eternal for Desiree Ellis as Banyana Banyana hold on to a slim chance of qualifying for the last-16 of the Fifa Women’s World Cup.
Banyana lost their opening two matches to Spain and China respectively, they are now going to tackle Germany in their last group match on Monday evening (6pm), at La Mosson Stadium in Montpellier.
But they no longer have their destiny in their own hands, now eyeing the best three runner's up spot to go through.
The Germans are the bookmarker’s favorites to win the eighth edition of the women’s football spectacle in France, alongside defending champions USA and former champions, Norway.
Heading to the last group matches, Banyana are rooted to the bottom of the group without a point, while Germany leads the group with six points followed by Spain and China, who are tied with three points each.
Mathematically, Banyana can still book their spot in the round of 16, if they can stun Germany with at least four goals and hope Spain beats China which is highly unlikely.
However, Ellis hasn’t lost hope yet, as she stated.“For us it is not over until it’s over, the players will go out there and give their all.
"We still have a chance, we can only do what we can then the rest is no longer in our hands,” said the former player and captain.
“We are facing a very structured and organized team, they have already registered two wins in the tournament. We just going to continue improving.”
In Ellis squad, there are some players who have not got a run and the coach says it’s not about giving individuals a chance.
She explained: “Players raise their hands at training it's not about giving individuals a chance.
"We have come with 23 players, you saw in the last game we had an injury in the eleventh hour with our goalkeeper Andile getting injured and Kaylin Swart steped up and had a great game.”
- Mthokozisi Mkhonza is in France as a guest of Sasol.
