Ivory Coast arrived at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations without having scored a single goal in qualifying. In their first match for twelve years they scored four.
The Ivorians beat Burkina Faso 4-1 at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca. Rebecca Elloh converted a penalty in the 7th minute and Inès Konan scored twice before the break.
The scoreline did not come from control. Ivory Coast went in at half-time 3-0 up having shared the ball exactly evenly: 50% possession each across the opening forty-five minutes.
What separated the sides was their finishing. Ivory Coast had seven shots in the first half, five on target, and 1.96 expected goals. Burkina Faso reached the interval with three attempts and 0.39.
Konan settled the decisive spell. She scored in the 14th minute after a pass from Rosemonde Kouassi and again in the 23rd, this time assisted by N’Sira Ouedraogo. One of the two was a header.
The match broke apart in the 52nd minute, when goalkeeper Faoziatou Ouedraogo was sent off. A dismissed player cannot be replaced, so Burkina Faso had to withdraw an outfield player, Stephanie Zida, to bring on the reserve goalkeeper, Nina Yadi Dabilgou.
Dabilgou conceded a minute after coming on. Ivory Coast managed only one shot on target in the entire second half, worth 0.19 expected goals: N’Sira Ouedraogo’s 4-0 in the 56th minute.
Burkina Faso’s response came with ten players and was the best chance of the match. In the 60th minute, captain Balkissa Sawadogo assisted the goal finished by Adama Congo, the same forward who scored Burkina Faso’s first ever goal in the tournament against Uganda in 2022.
The final score does not entirely reflect what happened on the pitch. Burkina Faso ended the match with more big chances than Ivory Coast, three to two, despite playing almost forty minutes a player short. Possession finished 53-47 to the Ivorians. The difference lay in the two penalty areas: Ivory Coast converted four goals from 2.16 expected, while Burkina Faso’s goalkeeping closed the match 1.74 goals worse than their model predicted. Their opposite number, Aramatou Diakité, finished on the positive side of it.
Alimata Bélem, who started and played the full ninety minutes, and Elloh, who scored the penalty, were the two Liga F players on the pitch in Casablanca.
Group B now has two sides on three points. Ivory Coast join Tanzania, who hours earlier had claimed the first win in their history in the competition against South Africa.
Burkina Faso, who had won all four of their qualifying matches, are still waiting for theirs.