South Africa coach Jabulile Baloyi has hailed her side's fighting spirit after reaching the first round of the U20 Women's World Cup qualifier despite a 2-2 draw with Zambia on Saturday.
Basetsana knew only a draw will guarantee their passage to the next stage of the competition after a 2-0 first-leg win over the Shepolopolo in Lusaka.
Strikes from Chelsea Daniels and Zethembiso Vilakazi ensured they came from behind twice against Zambia to earn a draw at home.
And the coach, who was pleased with their progress, expressed delight in her team's character after their second-half comeback to ensure a stalemate.
“I am very happy that we progressed into the next round of the World Cup qualifiers,” Baloyi told Safa.net.
“The girls played really well and we will now face Botswana in the next round. We came back twice from behind, which forced the match to end at 2-2 and therefore winning 4-2 on aggregate.
“I must applaud my girls on the great character they showed on the day."
Basetsana have featured seven times in the final stage of the qualifying series in their previous nine attempts but will have to negotiate past rivals Botswana to reach the second round.
And the tactician is untroubled by the pedigree and the threat of the female Zebras, who earlier eliminated Namibia after a 9-0 triumph.
“And just looking at Botswana there will be a whole lot of planning and preparation going into both of those legs," she continued.
"We have already started studying them and we will look at what is the best approach [that] will work for us going into both fixtures.
“Our main goal is to qualify for Costa Rica and Panama 2020 Fifa U20 Women’s World Cup and nothing less.”
South Africa will travel to Gaborone for the first leg, first round against Botswana on March 20 before returning home for the reserve fixture a week later in Johannesburg.
The winner of the doubleheader will confront either Ethiopia or Zimbabwe in the second round of their qualifying campaign in April.
