Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis says her team “threw the kitchen sink” at Nigeria in their goalless draw at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday evening.

South Africa fell short of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after they fell to a 1-0 aggregate defeat to the Super Eagles of Nigeria in Pretoria.

Banyana came into this fixture with a one-goal disadvantage after they were defeated in the first leg in Abuja, Nigeria.

Ellis has since expressed her disappointment at the result and not qualifying for the Olympics.

“We knew that coming into this game we needed to score,” said Ellis.

“We also knew that we needed to score as early as possible because the longer the game went on, we became desperate. We did not start well, we changed the formation slightly because we needed to score.

“We did not go forward as much as we wanted to in the first half, made a couple of changes in the second half and threw the kitchen sink at them.

“Unfortunately, that elusive goal did not go in and for that we are very disappointed.”

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