The winner between the two will join Nigeria and Cameroon, who already secured their places at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup to be staged in Canada.
Despite heading into the tournament on a high, following an impressive run of results in their preparations, Banyana failed to take their form to the eight-nation tournament.
“We were obviously disappointed with the defeat to Nigeria,” Smeda told snl24.com/kickoff from the team’s camp in Namibia.
“But the focus is switched on to the next game now, which is Ivory Coast; there is still a chance for us to reach our goal which is to qualify for next year’s Women’s World Cup.
“We just need to win, there’s no other way,” she added
Banyana’s qualification to the semi-finals wasn’t as smooth a sail as many thought it would be. After they stumbled to a 1-0 defeat against Cameroon in their group opener, they were held to a 1-1 draw by Ghana.
They then had to beat Algeria with a high margin, in their final Group B match, to progress to the semi-finals and, as such, did so fashionably – trashing them 5-1.
They, however, succumbed to the African Champions Nigeria as they lost 1-2.
Smeda remains optimistic that they will get the result against the West Africans that will take them to next year’s World Cup showpiece in Canada.
“I think we will get the result that we want,” said the 25-year-old.
“Of course it won’t be easy, but we’ve played them before and we managed to contain them,” she concluded.
The 3rd/4th place play-off match takes place tomorrow at Sam Nujoma Stadium, in Namibia, with kick-off scheduled for 17h00, and the will be broadcasted live on SABC TV.