Banyana Banyana of South Africa defeated Black Queens 3-0 at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos after leading 1-0 at halftime.
Desiree Ellis, the current CAF Women's Coach of the Year, acknowledged afterward that the South Africans were "a little rusty" because some overseas-based players had last played with the present team two years ago.
"In the beginning, we were a bit rusty. We haven't played since April, and some of our (foreign) players, we haven't seen since 2019," said Ellis, who added that the squad assembled only two days prior,"
"We know our opponents (Ghana) have been in training for a while,"
"Today, we created a lot of opportunities, and we got better as the game went on,"
"We know that there's a game coming up (against Nigeria) and needed to manage ourselves better,"
"We are happy with the result, and the performance still leaves a lot of room for improvement,"