Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis has cautioned against the trap of falling into complacency in the return leg of the third round of the Paris 2024 Qualifiers against Tanzania.

The reigning CAF Women’s Coach of the Year and her charges had a successful trip to Tanzania on Friday, 23 February, where goals from the attacking trio of Jermaine Seopesenwe, Thembi Kgatlana, and Hildah Magaia secured a 3-0 away victory for the reigning African champions.

Banyana Banyana, who has featured twice at the Olympics (2012 and 2016), is looking to return to the global showpiece, which will have two spots reserved for Africa.

After the convincing victory, Ellis said she was happy with the result but believed her team could still play even better.

“I am thrilled with the result, but I also know that we can play way better. I think we can only get better from here onwards. The (domestic) league hasn’t started, so it was expected that we might struggle a bit and be rusty playing against a Tanzanian team with mostly local players. They’ve played ten league matches so far,” said Ellis.

While a three-goal advantage seems to be a pretty comfortable position ahead of the return leg, the former Banyana Banyana captain says the job must be finished at home, and there was no room for complacency.

“We have to finish the job back home. We don’t want to become complacent. The next goal in the match could change things, and we have to score the next goal, and once that is over, you know, then we’ll worry about who we’ll have to face, be it Nigeria or Cameroon. We still have a job to do. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves; we want to ensure we finish the job”, concluded Ellis.