Malawi continued their fairytale debut at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), coming from behind to beat Ghana 2-1 in Sunday’s last quarter-final which also secured them a spot in the World Cup for the first time.
Rose Kadzere scored a 79th minute winner following Temwa Chawinga’s 12th minute equaliser after English-born striker Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah had put Ghana into a seventh minute lead.
Malawi join Algeria, Cameroon and Morocco as Africa’s four automatic qualifiers for next year’s 32-team World Cup in Brazil. The four WAFCON quarter-final winners all advanced directly to the World Cup.
Malawi will meet Algeria in Wednesday’s first WAFCON semi-final, followed by hosts Morocco against Cameroon, who earlier on Sunday produced a shock when they ousted defending champions Nigeria 1-0 in Casablanca.
Myriam Nyadjou, 19, struck a superb long-range free kick to hand her country a World Cup ticket.
Nigeria had qualified for all nine previous Women’s World Cup finals but now have to try and gain entry to the finals through a complicated play-off route that offers Africa the possibility of two more representatives.
Their defeat means there will be a new WAFCON winner next week. Equatorial Guinea and South Africa are the only other countries to have won the African title.
The final is next Sunday in Rabat.
–Reuters–
