Sweden’s World Cup-bound national women’s team will return to South Africa for a second year running to face Banyana Banyana in an international friendly in January.
The Swedes, ranked ninth in the world, will take advantage of warm weather to train as they build towards the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France next year.
South Africa will hope to join them in the coming weeks as they campaign in the African Women’s Championship that serve as qualifiers.
The European team will be based in Cape Town from January 14-23 and take on South Africa in a friendly on January 22. The teams played earlier this year too with the Swedes running out 3-0 winners.
“South Africa is technically astute and a quick team. It was a good challenge this year and it will even be a greater challenge in 2019,” Sweden coach Peter Gerhardssons said in a media release from the South African Football Association.
“South Africa is playing at the CAF AWCON right now and is competing for one of the three World Cup slots. And from the look of things in Ghana, they are likely to be one of the African teams that will qualify for the 2019 FIFA World Cup.
“We are very pleased with the camp in South Africa this coming January. When we got the opportunity to go back there for a new camp and the game in Cape Town, we were overly excited at the opportunity.
“We do not have a significant difference in time zones, and it is obviously a favourable environment for the sporting conditions in January.”
Gerhardsson will announce his squad for the training camp in South Africa on Tuesday.