By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
… To Meet Winner of Nigeria vs Cameroon Match in the Semifinal.
THE ATLAS Lionesses of Morocco Saturday night in Rabat took sweet revenge of the WAFCON 2022 grand finale when the Mahgreb babes ousted the Banyana Banyana this time at the quarterfinals 2–1.
Defender Hanane Haji had floated a long pass to Sakina Ouzraoui to open scores in the 31st minute before Hanane herself stepped forward to score the 2nd goal from the spot after Fikile Magama who has been the Achilles heels in the South African defence caused a penalty and got a yellow in the process.
Thembi Kgatlana however got a consolation goal in the 67th minute from Dhlamini pass.
South Africa did the playing but the goals that matter were scored by Morocco. RSA got 8-5 shots at goal, 2-2 on target and dominated the game with 52-48% ball possessions stringing 357-343 passes and getting 2-1 corner kicks.
Morocco did their study to observe that the Xenophobic prone ladies used Crosses to get at them 18-7 and they opted to use long passes 74-69 to reach their attackers giving the defensive midfielder of South Africa extra job to do hence South Africa bagging 2-1 yellow cards becoming lady Escapees from the yellow and red cards flashing though the foul calls were 16-16.
To get to the quarterfinals, Morocco spanked Kenya 4-0, piped Algeria by a lone goal and played goalless with Senegal. South Africa slumped to neighbouring Tanzania 1-2, played 2-2 draw with Ivory Coast and narrowly defeated Burkina Faso by a lone goal.
Their spectacular former meeting was the grande finale of WAFCON 2022 on the same pitch in Rabat on 23rd July 2022 when Magaia scored a brace and Ayane got a consolation goal before a crowd of 50000 fans with Ref Salima Mukasanga of Rwanda.
That year Nigeria won the Bronze beating Zambia by a lone goal. On 2nd December 2025 South Africa had beaten Morocco 2-0 in a friendly so you can imagine the celebration in the dressing room after this victory.
Both countries have been to the FIFA female football World Cup before. Morocco ranked 64 were there once but lost at the Round of 16 matches in 2023 never won the WAFCON title in their four appearances but got Silver in 2022 and 2024.
Having gotten a good revenge on their 2022 conquerors Morocco will make special prayers at the Alasalatou (an Islamic fellowship session) tomorrow for Nigeria to beat Cameroon in the quarterfinals and come face them in the semifinal.
Nigeria had snatched their 10th title from Morocco coming from two goals down to win 3-2.
Nigeria is meeting Cameroon at 6pm while Malawi will face Ghana in the last quarterfinal match at 9.00pm also tomorrow.
All semifinalists will fly their countries flag at the world cup finals in Brazil next year.
#FIFA ##CAF #WAFCON2026
#CECAFA #COSAFA #UNAFA
#UNIFFAC #WAFU #RMFF
#SAFA #NFF
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