Banyana Banyana coach Vera Pauw has described their encounter against China as a do or die clash when the two side’s meet at the Olympic Stadium in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

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Both sides lost their opening clashes as South Africa went down 1-0 to Sweden while Brazil defeated China 3-0 in the other encounter, which makes this fixture all the more important, reports Safa.net.

Pauw believes that if Banyana Banyana can defeat China when the two side’s meet, they stand a good chance of progressing to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

‘Both South Africa and China need positive results after we did not do well in our first matches, so this makes this clash a do or die affair because should we win we stand a good chance of going to the quarterfinals and if we lose then our chances have decreased drastically,’ Pauw said.

‘We could also make history by winning our first match at the Olympics.’

The Banyana Banyana mentor believes they should not let China’s 3-0 defeat against Brazil count against them, insisting that her side has to work hard to pile the pressure on the Chinese.

‘We have been monitoring China for a while now, and seeing them play Brazil didn’t give us anything new. They are technically sound and very mobile, they are not strong physically but can move the ball around and that is what we need to guard against – if we give them openings they can break us, so we have to work hard to put them under pressure and not allow them to play, and that will be half the job done,’ she added.

Kick-off has been set for 00:00.