Malawi beat Algeria 1-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat and will play the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final at their first attempt.
Both sides had arrived at the semi-final with their place at the 2027 World Cup already secure — the tournament awards four and they go to the four semi-finalists — so the only thing at stake was Sunday.
Malawi take it, and become the seventh different finalist since the tournament adopted its current format in 1998. No other side had reached a final on their first appearance in that time.
Fifty-three minutes and two red cards
The first half would not fit into forty-five.
Algeria went down to ten in the 23rd minute, with the score still goalless: defender Morgane Belkhiter was sent off. Ten minutes later Malawi went ahead through Tabitha Chawinga.
The second came in stoppage time. Temwa Chawinga scored in the 45+1 from a Faith Chinzimu pass.
Both sisters scored in the same half of a semi-final.
The numbers evened out before the break: Rose Kadzere, who had scored the goal that knocked Ghana out in the quarter-finals, was booked in the 45+4 and sent off four minutes later.
The Algerian defence broke in forty-five minutes
Algeria came to Rabat having conceded two goals in four matches. Only Morocco had a better record among the four semi-finalists.
They conceded the same two before half-time, and the gap was wider than the scoreline: 1.90 expected goals for Malawi against 0.20 for Algeria, twelve shots to seven and two big chances to none.
Ten against ten, Algeria had sixteen shots in the second half
The match turned when Ikram Adjabi pulled one back in the 60th, from a pass by captain Marine Dafeur.
From there Farid Benstiti’s side took control of the game without getting back the player they had lost. Algeria had sixteen shots after the break to Malawi’s five, created five big chances — they had not had a single one before — and gathered 1.70 expected goals.
They finished with twenty-three shots, nine on target and 60% of the ball. And lost.
The explanation sits in the two penalty areas. Malawi needed five second-half shots to produce 2.04 expected goals, and one of them made it three: Tabitha Chawinga in the 76th, from a Benadetta Mkandawire cross. At the other end goalkeeper Mercy Sikelo made seven saves and her side cleared thirty balls to Algeria’s fourteen.
What is left for each of them
Temwa Chawinga now has five goals in the tournament, level with Zambia’s Barbra Banda at the top of the chart — with the difference that she still has a match to play. Her older sister Tabitha reaches four.
Algeria, who had come from behind against Ivory Coast to reach the first semi-final in their history, play the third-place match on Saturday 15 August.
Malawi play the final on Sunday 16 against the winners of Morocco v Cameroon, which kicks off tonight. The full bracket closes that day.
