By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…South Africa vs Morocco and Ivory Coast vs Algeria in the Quarterfinals.
WOMEN ELEPHANTS of Ivory Coast and Banyana Banyana of South Africa on Tuesday got their tickets to play the quarterfinals of the 14th WAFCON 2026 tournament in Morocco.
Women Elephants trampled on the Twiga Stars of Tanzania 2-1 before a near empty stadium as Ines Konan laid a pass to Nsira Ouedraogo to open the score sheet in the 44th minute. Ines Konan made it 2-0 for Ivory Coast via penalty kick in the 68th minute but some of the few fans and even Journalists missed a penalty awarded to and scored by Tanzania to make final scores 2-1 in favor of Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast Women had met their Tanzania counterparts three times and the Ivoriens won twice with Tanzania winning once and Ivory Coast scored 5 of the 8 goals recorded.
On 6th September 2015 Tanzania lost 0-1; in the WAFCON qualifier matches played on 22nd September 2023 Ivory Coast won in Abidjan 2-0 and on the return leg of 26th September Tanzania won 2-0.
The Ivoriens ranked 72 who are in their 3rd appearances had won a Bronze at Namibia 2014 when they lost to Cameroon 1-2 after extra time in the semifinal and beat South Africa by a lone goal to win the Bronze.
Tanzania ranked 122 in their 3rd appearances too have never gone beyond the group stages as they were ousted in 2010 and 2024.
In the other Group B match, Banyana Banyana of South Africa piped the Ladies Stallions of Burkina Faso by a lone goal scored by Thembi Kgatlana in the 21st minute through the assist of Fikile Magama.
South Africa and Burkina Faso met at the WAFCON qualifier of 2023 when on 30th November Burkina Faso drew 1-1 at home only to lose to South Africa 0-2 in the Xenophobic land.
South had lost 1-2 to Tanzania, Ivory Coast stamped on Burkina 4-1; South Africa and Ivory Coast drew 2-2 while Burkina Faso beat Tanzania 2-1 in this 14th WAFCON2026 tournament.
Ivory Coast at the end of proceedings this evening topped group B with 7 points scoring 8 goals and conceding 3; South Africa came 2nd with 4 points scoring 4 goals and conceding 4; Tanzania placed 3rd with 3 points scoring 3 goals and conceding 4 while Burkina Faso placed 4th with 3 points too scoring 3 goals but conceded 7.
Ivory Coast will now meet Algeria in the 1st quarterfinals on Saturday at 6pm while hosts Morocco will face South Africa in the 2nd quarterfinals on Saturday at 9pm.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the last group games for group C where Malawi will try to subdue high scoring Zambia and Nigeria has a win well or go home date with Egypt and both matches will be played simultaneously at 9.00pm.
On Thursday, all the group matches will come to an end with group D as Ghana takes on Mali and Cape Verde tackles Cameroon with both matches taking place simultaneously at 9.00pm.
#CAF #WAFCON2026 #WAFU
#COSAFA #CECAFA #IFF
#SAFA #TFF #BFF #NFF.
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