By: Natasha Archary

It’s do or die for Banyana Banyana who have to beat Italy on Wednesday night, 02 August, in their final Group G clash in order to advance in the round 16 at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Team Coach, Desiree Ellis said the women’s national team will treat the game against Le Azzurre (Italian side) like a final.
Ellis addressed concerns after the African Champions suffered defeat in the opening game against Sweden, and then went on to draw against Argentina, in the second group game.
Despite the odds against Banyana Banyana, Ellis says the ladies are recharged and know nothing but a victory will get the team through to the next round.
“We know it’s going to be a difficult game, they are going to have to protect what they have, and we have come for the three points.
It is do or die, nothing less than victory. We really have worked hard on a lot in the past couple of days, how we can hurt them. We can’t share that plan but we have worked on something that we feel can get us the results.
We also review, we have a post-match session after every match on what we could have done better, and we work on that a lot in training.
Like I said, you can work on it at training and sometimes it is organizational that does not work on the day, in moments where we are not organized.
But we have to constantly work on that all the time to give them the opportunity to do better.”
Banyana Banyana Coach, Desiree Ellis
Banyana Banyana entered the World Cup with controversary around pay disputes, which were eventually resolved between the Patrice Motsepe Foundation and SAFA.
The players union reached an agreement that over and above what FIFA will be paying players, each Banyana Banyana player will receive R230 000.
Additionally support staff members will receive a further R150 000.
Banyana Banyana take on Italy at the Wellington Regional Stadium in New Zealand at 09h00 (SA time).
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