South Africa, the defending champions, defeated Senegal 4-1 on penalties in a thrilling quarterfinal match at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) on Saturday night, securing a thrilling semifinal matchup with Nigeria’s Super Falcons.
After 120 minutes of fierce football at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda, the game ended without a goal. This pushed the match into a penalty shootout, where the Banyana Banyana showed unwavering composure. The Senegalese struggled, only managing to score one of their four spot-kick attempts, while South Africa scored all four with clinical accuracy.
For the South African team, which had previously lost WAFCON penalty shootouts to Equatorial Guinea in the 2008 final and to Nigeria in the 2018 final, this is a major turning point. They won on penalties for the first time in the tournament’s history on Saturday.
The outcome sets up a tantalizing semifinal matchup between South Africa and Nigeria, the two dominant teams in African women’s football. A rematch of the 2022 WAFCON group-stage match in Morocco, where South Africa shocked Nigeria with a 2-1 victory and handed the Falcons their first group-stage defeat in 20 years, will take place in the eagerly awaited match.
In their quarterfinal on Friday, the Super Falcons, who are vying for a record-tying 10th WAFCON championship under the campaign theme Mission X, easily defeated Zambia 5-0, preserving their flawless defensive record. The semifinal offers South Africa the opportunity to demonstrate that their 2022 championship run was not an anomaly in addition to advancing to back-to-back finals.
The Black Queens of Ghana, who are experiencing a WAFCON comeback following years of underwhelming performance, will play the tournament hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
