WAFCON 2026: Algeria and Malawi qualify for first Women’s World Cup, Cameroon shocks Nigeria

Algeria and Malawi have qualified for their first Women’s World Cup, booking a place in Brazil next year by advancing to the semifinals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations this weekend. Morocco and Cameroon also secured qualification with their wins, the latter shocking ten-time WAFCON champions, Nigeria.

Morocco are heading back to the World Cup after making their debut in 2023, while Cameroon are set for their third World Cup appearance.

WAFCON hosts Morocco, who finished as runners-up in the prior two continental tournaments, will now take on Cameroon in the final four. The other semifinal will see a meeting between two first-time semifinalists, as Algeria face off against Malawi. Both semifinals will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 12, in Rabat.

The road to the final is getting shorter. #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2026 pic.twitter.com/leuKZrHqdM

— CAF Women Football (@CAFwomen) August 9, 2026

With reigning champions Nigeria eliminated, there will be a new continental champion in Africa. None of the four semifinalists have ever lifted the trophy either.

The road to Brazil is not quite over for the defeated quarterfinalists. The losing quartet will have a chance to earn two berths to FIFA’s inter-confederation play-offs in February 2027. On Thursday, Aug. 13, the two play-in matches will see Ivory Coast take on Ghana and, in a meeting between the previous two WAFCON champions, South Africa will take on Nigeria.

Algeria qualified for their first Women’s World Cup. (Muzi Ntombela / BackpagePix via CAF)

Algeria 2-1 Ivory Coast — Moulay Rachid Stadium, Casablanca

The Elephants of Ivory Coast entered their WAFCON quarterfinal as one of the more attack-minded teams in the tournament, having put eight goals past their opponents in the group stage. Algeria, meanwhile, have had one of the least penetrable defences, conceding just once in the same period.

For much of the first half of the quarterfinal, the West African side were well in control of the match. After an early goal was called back due to offside in the build-up, Ivorian forward Ines Konan formally opened the scoring in the 29th minute for her fourth goal of the tournament. But the momentum of the match immediately swung away from Ivory Coast when one of its most influential players, 18-year-old striker N’Sira Ouedraogo, was shown a straight red card just before halftime for a high cleat infraction.

Reduced to 10 players, the Ivorians continued to make attempts on goal, but Algeria identified a vulnerability in goalkeeper Aramatou Diakité, who struggled to contain their long-range shots. Both of Algeria’s goals — the first from Inès Khiri in the 58th minute, then from Amira Braham in the 64th — happened that way, taken from outside the box. Ivory Coast were awarded a penalty in between Algeria’s goals, but Rébecca Elloh’s shot smacked the post and was cleared away.

With their victory, the Desert Foxes of Algeria have earned their first invitation to the World Cup next year, and will compete in their first WAFCON semifinal. They will meet Malawi on Aug. 13 at Olympic Stadium in Rabat.

Morocco qualifies for their second Women’s World Cup and advances to the WAFCON semifinals. (Sydney Mahlangu / BackpagePix via CAF)

Morocco 2-1 South Africa — Moulay El Hassan Stadium, Rabat

The second quarterfinal clash on Saturday between Morocco and South Africa saw the WAFCON hosts and two-time finalists meet the team that dashed their hopes of a continental trophy in 2022, when South Africa beat them 2-1. In the years since, the teams’ trajectories have gone in different directions; Morocco have bolstered their squad, while South Africa have remained largely stagnant with little to offer their aging veteran players.

Morocco went unbeaten and didn’t concede any goals in their group stage matches to top their group, while South Africa lost their first match to Tanzania, clawed their way to a 2-2 draw with Ivory Coast, and squeezed past Burkina Faso 1-0 to reach the quarterfinal as the second seed in their group. They started with momentum, but a spectacular volley outside the box from Moroccan winger Sakina Ouzraoui gave control to Morocco.

Unlike their 2025 WAFCON campaign, South Africa did have striker Thembi Kgatlana this time around. The 30-year-old Tigres forward suffered an ACL injury during the group stage of Banyana Banyana’s championship run in 2022 and missed the rest of that tournament, and chose not to participate in 2025 due to personal reasons. Kgatlana scored two goals in South Africa’s last two matches of the group stage that proved instrumental to their knockout stage hopes — and on Saturday, she rose to the occasion again. Her 71st-minute goal thrust Morocco into an uneasy position for the rest of the match.

Morocco will compete in their second consecutive World Cup and face Cameroon in the semifinal on Aug. 13 in Rabat.

Cameroon defeated 10-time WAFCON champions Nigeria to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup. (BackpagePix via CAF)

Cameroon 1-0 Nigeria — Larbi Zaouli Stadium, Casablanca

The unthinkable happened on Sunday night when the reigning champions WAFCON were eliminated at the quarterfinal stage 1-0 by Cameroon. This was Nigeria’s earliest exit at WAFCON, having won 10 of 13 official continental tournaments and making the semifinals in the other three. It was just the second time in 14 meetings that Cameroon had defeated Nigeria.

Although 19-year-old Cameroon defender Maéva Nyadjou scored the winning goal with a drilled direct free-kick in the 19th minute, it was goalkeeper Michaely Bihina who grabbed the player of the match honors. As Nigeria piled on the pressure, the 22-year-old shot-stopper made nine saves on her way to a clean sheet. “We have always been dominated by Nigeria, but today we’ve turned the tide,” Bihina told the broadcast.

Nigeria and Washington Spirit midfielder Deb Abiodun, who helped Nigeria lift the WAFCON trophy one year ago, could be seen weeping into her jersey after the full-time whistle. She wasn’t the only Super Falcon to do so. The shock defeat also severely harms their hopes of qualifying for the 2027 World Cup.

For Cameroon, it was elation. The Indomitable Lionesses did not originally qualify for this competition until CAF decided to expand the tournament to 16 teams in November 2025. But now they have booked their ticket for their first World Cup and are into the semifinals of WAFCON for the first time since 2018. The three-time runners-up will be hoping that 2026 could be the year that brings home a first continental championship.

Malawi 2-1 Ghana — Al Medina Stadium, Rabat

The quarterfinals closed out Sunday night with more African soccer history. WAFCON debutants Malawi came from behind to defeat Ghana 2-1 and, by doing so, qualified for their first-ever World Cup.

Ranked 153rd in the world, Malawi are the lowest-ranked team out in Morocco. But you’d never know it from the quality and confidence of their play. That was no more evident than when Rose Kadzere scored the historic winning goal in the 78th minute.

The 20-year-old midfielder kept her cool to take a touch and finish off a pass from Temwa Chawinga in the middle of the box.

Just Chawinga sister duties. #TotalEnergiesWAFCON2026 pic.twitter.com/QaBqy2cYPE

— CAF Women Football (@CAFwomen) August 9, 2026

Ghana had taken a very early lead in the seventh minute through Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah. But within five minutes, Chawinga scored her fourth goal of the tournament to bring Malawi level with a deflected shot. Chawinga selflessly celebrated the goal by running to the sidelines and holding up the jersey of her injured teammate Sabinah Thom.

Beyond scoring one and setting up the other of Malawi’s goals, Chawinga put in a relentless defensive shift whenever Ghana tried to attack.

“Every girl put in effort to win this game,” Chawinga told the broadcast. “Every player wanted to go to the World Cup. I am so happy that we qualified to go to the World Cup. I’ve won two of these (Player of the Match trophies) and I’m helping my team to win. I’m so excited.”