Malawi have needed only four matches to reach the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.
Algeria had played 19 across six appearances without ever getting this far.
On Wednesday, one of the two will play its first continental final.
Algeria and Malawi meet from 18:00 local time at the Olympic Stadium in Rabat. It will be their first meeting at the Africa Cup of Nations and also a match between the only two semi-finalists who had never come this far at the tournament.
Both sides have already secured their first World Cup qualification. The win over Ivory Coast sent Algeria to Brazil 2027. Malawi got there a day later by knocking out Ghana.
Now they can turn the same tournament into something greater still.
Three wins in four matches
Algeria arrived in Morocco with three wins to their name in the entire history of the competition.
They have now won three more.
The Algerians beat Senegal and Kenya 2-0 in the group stage. Between those two matches they lost 1-0 to Morocco, their only defeat. In the quarter-finals they came from behind against Ivory Coast to win 2-1 and get through a knockout tie at the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time.
Farid Benstiti’s side needed four matches to match the three wins they had managed in their six previous appearances, spread across 19 games.
Their progress rests on the defence. Algeria have conceded two goals at the tournament, the same number Malawi shipped in their opening match against Nigeria alone. Only Morocco have a better defensive record among the four semi-finalists.
That solidity does not depend on one player. Eight have started all four matches and six — Inès Belloumou, Marine Dafeur, Roselène Khezami, Amira Ould Braham, Chloé N’Gazi and Lana Smits — have played all 360 minutes.
They have also shared their six goals among five players. Dafeur is the only one with two, and she set up Ould Braham for the decisive goal in the quarter-finals.
Against Ivory Coast, Algeria showed they can survive when a match drifts away from the plan. Inès Konan put the Ivorians ahead, but Habibou Ouédraogo’s sending-off before half-time changed the picture. Inès Khiri equalised in the 58th minute and Ould Braham completed the turnaround six minutes later, just after Rebecca Elloh had missed a penalty for Ivory Coast.
It was Algeria’s first Africa Cup of Nations win after conceding the opening goal.
Malawi always score and always concede
Malawi have built their debut from the opposite end.
They have scored nine goals, more than any of the other semi-finalists. They have also conceded six, the highest figure among the four sides still in the tournament.
They have scored and conceded in every match: they beat Nigeria 3-2, beat Egypt 3-1, lost 2-1 to Zambia and came from behind to knock out Ghana 2-1.
Temwa Chawinga carries much of that threat. The forward has four goals and one assist. She has scored in all three Malawi wins, and the goal that settled the quarter-final was Rose Kadzere’s in the 79th minute.
Lovemore Fazili’s side are the first debutants to reach the semi-finals since Zimbabwe in 2000. Leaving aside the inaugural edition in 1998, no side has reached the final on its first appearance.
Malawi could be the first.
A new finalist
The match guarantees the Africa Cup of Nations a seventh different finalist since it adopted its current format in 1998. Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Morocco are the six sides who had managed it so far.
Neither Algeria nor Malawi have any experience of this stage, but both arrive having passed the same test for the first time: going behind and coming back in a tie that also carried a World Cup place.
Algeria will try to shrink the match and protect a penalty area that has been breached only twice. Malawi will try to turn it back into a shoot-out, the ground on which they have built the highest-scoring campaign of the semi-finalists.
One needed seven appearances to get here. The other has done it at the first attempt.
From 18:00, both start from the same place.
