- South Africa playing their second Women's World Cup
- They are pooled with Italy, Sweden and Argentina
- Motlhalo makes her case
WHAT HAPPENED: Banyana Banyana are representing Africa in the 2023 Women's World Cup alongside Morocco, Zambia, and Nigeria.
They will be playing Sweden on Sunday in Group G's opening assignment to be staged at the Wellington Regional Stadium.
While South Africa are making their second appearance in the global competition, Sweden have qualified for every edition.
Motlhalo is adamant the African Champions have enough quality to see them get into the next phase of the tournament.
WHAT SHE SAID: "In all honesty South African players can go toe to toe with any team. As much as we have respect for other teams when we get on the field there are 11 players against 11 and there is one ball," Motlhalo told iDiski Times.
"So we can go against any team, anybody, that’s the belief we have and that’s what makes football fun. You know, competing against the best teams and having the hunger and the eagerness to beat them. I believe that we can compete against anybody once we are on the same pitch, when we work as a team and have confidence we can do anything that we want to do.
"The expectation for Banyana Banyana to make it to the next stage is very realistic. We’ve been putting in the work. There is a lot of positivity in the team and there is expectation from us as players as well," she continued.
"You can see that we are determined and we are working towards what we really believe that we can achieve, which is making it into the next stage. And that’s just by taking it one game at a time and improving one game at a time to achieve where we want to go. So it is very realistic."
THE BIGGER PICTURE: In the 2019 edition in France, Banyana did not go past the group stage. As a matter of fact, they lost all their three matches.
They have since improved and went on to claim the 2022 Wafcon competition after beating Morocco in the final.
Apart from Sweden, Argentina and Italy are the other two opponents in Group G.
WHAT NEXT: Banyana will be hoping to cause an upset against the Swedes to stand a chance of advancing to the knockout phase.
