South Africa and Ghana have kept their hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup alive after securing crucial play-off victories in Morocco on Thursday.
Ghana came from behind to defeat Ivory Coast 2-1 in Casablanca, while South Africa edged Nigeria by the same scoreline in a dramatic encounter in Morocco’s commercial capital.
Ivory Coast took an early lead when Ines Konan converted a penalty just four minutes into the match. Ghana responded after the break, with Princess Marfo equalising before Josephine Bonsu converted another penalty to complete the comeback.
South Africa also had to fight for their victory. Thembi Kgatlana and captain Refiloe Jane scored after half-time to give Banyana Banyana a 2-0 advantage.
Nigeria pulled a goal back three minutes into stoppage time through Christy Ucheibe, who converted from the penalty spot. South Africa were then forced to defend with 10 players after Jane was sent off, but they held on to secure the win.
The victories give Ghana and South Africa another opportunity to reach the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
The two teams will join Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea and either Venezuela or Ecuador in a six-team intercontinental play-off tournament scheduled for November and December. The top two teams from the tournament will advance to a further stage, where they will face representatives from the North, Central America and Caribbean region, South America and Europe for the remaining World Cup places.
Cameroon, Malawi, Algeria and hosts Morocco had already secured Africa’s four automatic World Cup places by reaching the semi-finals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The play-offs offered Ghana, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Nigeria a second route to the global tournament after they were eliminated in the WAFCON quarter-finals.
For Nigeria, the defeat capped a disappointing tournament for Africa’s highest-ranked women’s team. They lost three of their five matches, including a shock defeat to lower-ranked Malawi.
Attention now turns to the WAFCON semi-finalists. Morocco will face Algeria in the third-place play-off on Saturday, while Malawi take on Cameroon in Sunday’s final. Both matches will be played in Rabat.
Malawi are ranked 153rd in the world and are making their first appearance in a WAFCON final, while Cameroon will be aiming to win the title after finishing runners-up three times, most recently in 2016.