The Super Falcons on Tuesday in Casablanca, Morocco, knocked out defending champions Banyana Banyana of South Africa 2-1 to stand a graceful chance of clinching an historic 10th Africa women’s football title.
Captain Rasheedat Ajibade stepped forward at the 45th minute to score from the penalty spot the opening goal of the tense encounter after a South African defender touched the ball in the box.
Nigeria’s defender, Osinachi Ohale, however, committed a defensive blunder that gave South Africa a penalty advantage, which was duly converted for the equaliser at the 60th minute by Linda Motlhhala.
The goal erased the seeming invincibility, which has seen the Nigerian ladies keep a clean slate in four consecutive matches at the tournament.
Just as the fans were waiting for penalty shootouts in the match, German Machine, Esther Okoronkwo floated a cross pass into the South African box for overlapping defender, Mitchell Alozie, to slot in, but the South African goalkeeper was actually targeting Deborah Abiodun, whose shadow created the confusion that pushed the Banyana Banyana down to try the bronze medal.
The loss was the 12th semifinal showing of South Africa, but they had come up short on six occasions and had qualified for the finals six times but managed to win the title once, which was at the last edition.
Nigeria had walloped Tunisia 3-0, beaten Botswana by a lone goal, and played goalless with Algeria at the group stages before upsetting Zambia with a whopping 5-0 victory in the quarterfinals, which is the highest score by a team in a match.
South Africa had beaten Ghana 2-0, played 1-1 with 10 women players of Tanzania, and drubbed Mali 4-0 at the group stages before sending out Senegal 4-1 on penalties after a goalless full time in the quarterfinals.
South Africa, rated 54 in the world, had two appearances at the World Cup, and their best was a round of 16 in 2023.
She won the WAFCON title in 2022; picked Silver 5 times in 1995, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2018; won Bronze thrice in 2006, 2010, and 2016; and placed 4th in 2004, 2014, and 2016.
Nigeria won the title an astonishing 9 times, which no other African team has come near. The wins were in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 (five consecutive times), 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018. Nigeria reached the semifinal in all their 12 previous appearances, finishing 3rd in 2001 and placing 4th in 2012 and 2022.
Other champions were Equatorial Guinea, which won three times, and South Africa, once. Nigeria and South Africa are the only two nations to have qualified for all 12 tournaments since 1998.
The 3rd place match is on Friday, 25th July, at 8pm, while the finals will be held in Rabat on Saturday, 26th July, at 9pm.
Morocco will host the 16th edition of WAFCON in March 2026, which will be their 3rd consecutive advantage of hosting African women.
