On 23 July, in their last warm-up friendly, Ghana beat Malawi 4-0 and Doris Boaduwaa scored three. Seventeen days later, at the Al Madina Stadium in Rabat, Malawi came from 0-1 down, won 2-1 and qualified for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil. It will be the first of their history.
Ghana went ahead early. In the 7th minute Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah made it 0-1 with the first shot on target of the match. It lasted five minutes: in the 12th, Temwa Chawinga levelled. Both Chawinga sisters started — Tabitha, the captain, and Temwa — and it was the second of them who turned up.
The goal Ghana lost to the video
The passage that might have changed the tie came in the 54th. Boaduwaa, the same player who had scored three in that July friendly, put the ball in and the video review took it away. It was the last time Ghana saw the net all night.
Kadzere, twenty years old, in the 79th
Rose Kadzere got into the box in the 79th and completed the turnaround. She is twenty and plays for Montpellier. Seven minutes later she was booked, and in the 89th her head coach, Lovemore Fazili, took her off with the result already secured.
The number that holds the 2-1 up is not possession — Ghana had a little more, 52% — but accuracy. Malawi had eleven shots and put seven on target; Ghana had nine and hit two. In expected goals the match was near enough level (0.80 to 0.67), but in expected goals on target it opened up: 1.19 against 0.84. Malawi did not shoot more: they shot better.
What each of them has left
Malawi play their semi-final on Wednesday the 12th at 18:00 against Algeria. They arrived at this tournament making their finals debut and they will leave it with a World Cup place, whatever happens on Wednesday.
Ghana were looking to reach a World Cup twenty years on and have missed the direct route, but they are not eliminated: on Thursday the 13th, in Casablanca, they play the qualifying play-off against Côte d’Ivoire. Winning it does not hand them a ticket to Brazil — it earns one of Africa’s two places in the intercontinental play-offs in November and February — exactly as it was set out when the draw was made. The full picture, with both semi-finals now settled, is in the tournament bracket; the context, in the Women’s AFCON guide; and how the two arrived, in the preview of this match.
