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Nigeria will face hosts Morocco in the first Semi-final of the day as South Africa will also horns with Zambia at the ongoing 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The matches will be played on Monday 18th July 2022 at 11pm and 8pm EAT.
On paper, nine(9) times Women’s Africa Cup of Nations winners Nigeria will be favorites at the expense of experience in the Semi Final but Morocco have proven a worthy host who have done enough to earn a first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup and could disrupt Nigeria’s hopes of a title defense in Morocco
The Super Falcons of Nigeria collected six(6) points to finish 2nd in Group C that was topped by the other Semifinalist and then advanced to the quater final where they played arch-rivals Cameroon with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Rasheed at goal on Thursday night.
Despite not having their star Asitat Oshoala and losing a game in the group stage, Nigeria have been a dominant force in the tournament.
On the side of The Atlas Lionesses of Morocco on they finished top of Group A with maximum points (three wins from three games) before advancing to collect a hard fought 2-1 quater Final win over Botswana on Wednesday.
The players to look forward to in this game against the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco are their Captain and Midfielder Chebbak who has been the team’s star player and top scorer, Tottenham forward Rosale Ayane who has helped create spaces for the other forward to operate not leaving behind the tricky forward Fatima.
In the other semi-final the other pair that qualified for the the FIFA Women’s World Cup in South Africa and Zambia will face each other.
Banyana have gone from power to power in the last decade, qualifying for their first Olympics in London in 2012 and making it again for the next in 2016, Rio de Janeiro. Also qualified for their first Fifa Women’s World Cup in 2019, France.
The Banyana have battled their way to the semis beating Nigeria (2-1), Burundi (3-1) and Botswana (1-0) in their group stage matches to move to the quarterfinals on Thursday where, they defeated a Tunisia 1-0 in the Moroccan capital of Rabat to advance to the semifinals.
South Africa have had to grind out results, and they are yet to fire on all cylinders, they have played football that is pleasing to the eye and wowed the locals, created lots of chances but lacked in the number of goals.
South Africa are favoured by the fact that they have won all their four out of four matches to reach the semifinals, they have had to dig deep and were at times lethargic.
On the other side their opponents Zambia in the semifinals in Casablanca tomorrow evening will play a similar style of football to that of South Africa. They like to dominate possession on the ground, and rely on their skill, creativity and speed to penetrate the their opponents.
Last year, Zambia beat South Africa on penalties in the third-place match of the Cosafa Cup in Gqeberha in October and beat the same side 3-0 in a friendly match in Lusaka in February this year, something that is still fresh in the memory of the Banyana.
However, now that the pressure of qualifying for the World Cup is off their shoulders, which could have been the reason for the unrecognisable football for the Zambia.
Just like watching Zambia without Babra Banda, it will be worth watching South Africa without their best player and striker, Thembi Kgatlana, who was ruled out of the tournament in the last group stage match against Botswana.
The winner between South Africa and Zambia, they will face the winner of the other semifinal match between Nigeria and Morocco in Rabat, Morocco.
