Nigeria and South Africa headline Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals

Former champions Nigeria and South Africa headline the list of ten countries who, on Tuesday, all booked a berth at next year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Defending champions Nigeria made heavy work of their qualifying tie against neighbours Benin, drawing 1-1 in Abeokuta but going through 3-1 on aggregate after away success in the first leg last week.

Ashleigh Plumptre scored her first international goal for Nigeria in the 12th minute, but Benin’s Yasminath Djibril equalised on the hour mark for a morale-boosting away draw.

Banyana Banyana scored a late goal through the returning Thembi Kgatlana, who missed the Cup of Nations finals in Morocco earlier this year, to edge the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto and progress 2-1 on aggregate.

There was a shock win for the Cape Verde Islands, who will be going to the finals for the first time, along with Malawi, who will also be debutants.

Cape Verde lost the home leg of their tie against Mali 1-0 last Friday but bounced back in Bamako on Tuesday to win 4-2 after storming into a 3-0 halftime lead over the 2024 quarterfinalists.

Malawi, with French-based Tabitha Chawinga in the line-up, were 2-0 home winners over Anola in Blantyre to secure their first-ever trip to the finals. Faith Chimzimu scored both goals.

The other teams to qualify were Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and Tanzania, while Zambia had booked their place at the weekend when they beat Namibia.

Algeria upset Cameroon, who have been four-time runners-up at Wafcon, but now miss out on a second successive finals tournament.

Algeria had a slender 2-1 lead from the first leg but upset Cameroon 1-0 away in Douala on Tuesday. The only goal came from Marine Dafeur’s deflected shot in the 24th minute.

Morocco will host the 12-team tournament in March, only nine months after the last Cup of Nations finals, which had been postponed a year.

The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals also serve as the qualifiers for the next World Cup in Brazil in 2027.