An exciting 14th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) has come to an end – and it delivered a slew of surprises and historic performances over the past three weeks in Morocco.
Cameroon were crowned champions for the first time, thanks to a dominant 3-0 victory over tournament debutants Malawi at Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat on Sunday.
Algeria secured a third-place finish by beating the hosts on penalties in a thrilling Maghreb derby and walked away from Morocco with a bronze medal as well as the Fair Play award.
Double celebration for Algeria
The Fennecs had never made it past the quarter-finals in their six previous appearances at Wafcon. They shone at this year’s edition, reaching the semi-finals and punching their ticket to next year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup for the first time.
“There are two reasons to celebrate,” said Algeria head coach Farid Benstiti.
“The first is because we secured third place, which came completely out of nowhere at the end of the day. We were very frustrated after the semi-finals [loss to Malawi], which I believe we were capable of winning, and it wasn’t easy to motivate everyone once again; but that is normal.”
“We didn’t talk about Morocco; we simply spoke about the opportunity to win the bronze medal, because for us that meant a lot. It was a chance to reward everyone’s hard work, and all that frustration from losing the semi-finals; we transformed it into motivation for the bronze medal. And that’s what the players achieved.
“Now we can calmly prepare for the Olympic Games qualifiers, which are just around the corner, and then after that, we will calmly prepare for the World Cup. We are very happy.”
‘It’s not over’
Algeria had lost to Morocco in the group stage, but reversed the result when the teams met again in the third-place play-off. A Lina Boussaha strike in the 83rd minute cancelled Morocco’s first-half goal to get the Algerians back in the game, and they eventually grabbed the win when Ines Belloumou converted the decisive penalty in the shoot-out.
“We brought this medal for the Algerian people,” said Boussaha.
“We fought until the very last second and it is well-deserved. Everything we have been doing for three years now with Farid and his coaching staff is worth it. It's incredible. And this medal, it’s priceless. Honestly, we are so happy, so happy for the Algerian people, that we brought them something, and I hope we didn't let them down.
“And it's not over. We are going to keep pushing further and we will bring back even better, even more beautiful medals and trophies.”
Solace for Morocco
After reaching back-to-back Wafcon finals, Morocco were looking to go one step further and lift their first continental trophy. Instead, they lost in a semi-final penalty shoot-out to Cameroon and finished in fourth place.
The Atlas Lionesses, however, achieved one of their main goals for the tournament when they qualified for a second consecutive World Cup by reaching the final four.
Malawi spring a surprise
As the lowest-ranked team at Wafcon (153rd in the world) and competing in the tournament for the first time, Malawi were not expected to do much. But they stunned everyone and made it all the way to the final, locking down a place in next year’s World Cup in the process.
The Scorchers beat Nigeria and Egypt in the group stage, Ghana in the quarter-finals and Algeria in the semis to set up an unexpected decider against Cameroon.
Five goals and two assists from Temwa Chawinga helped Malawi make history in Morocco, and she finished the tournament as the joint top scorer and the player with the most goal contributions overall to claim the Golden Boot. Her older sister, Tabitha, netted four goals.
Quick hits
Ten-time Wafcon champions Nigeria were stunned by the 71st-ranked Cameroon in the quarter-finals and will miss the Fifa World Cup for the first time.
South Africa and Ghana won their respective play-in matches to earn spots in the World Cup global qualifying play-off tournament.
Egypt suffered three heavy defeats on their first Wafcon appearance in 10 years, losing 6-0 to Zambia, 3-1 to Malawi and 6-2 to Nigeria.
