Africa will be represented by four teams at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, including Nigeria, South Africa, and newcomers Morocco and Zambia. The field has been finalized.
Following their victories at the first Play-Off Tournament, Haiti, Portugal, and Panama secured their place in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, completing the tournament’s lineup.
South Africa
After a historic victory in the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations that earned them an automatic qualification to the world cup, South Africa, the reigning African champions, will take the world cup stage for the second time.
South Africa defeated Morocco 2-1 in the grand final to earn their second qualification for the world cup in 2019 when they made their debut.
The South Africans recently finished as runners-up in the Turkish Women’s Cup, which was played in Turkey this month.
Morocco
Morocco’s women’s football had a successful year in 2022. The Moroccan women’s team had an outstanding run in the 2022 AWCON, finishing first in Group A by winning all three group games.
They then narrowly defeated Botswana in the quarterfinals before shocking everyone by defeating Nigeria in the semifinals.
Ultimately, they fell to South Africa 2-1 and went home with silver medals.
This was followed by their women’s division champions, ASFAR, winning the 2022 CAF women’s Champions League.
Morocco have been pitted in Group H alongside Germany, Columbia, and Korea Republic for the world cup.
Nigeria
Nigeria, the most successful international women’s team from Africa, will make their ninth appearance at the world cup after placing fourth in the 2022 women’s edition of the African Cup of Nations.
The Super Falcons were placed in Group B with Canada, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland.
Their best showing at a global competition was in 1999 when they made it to the quarterfinals. After exiting the previous competition in the round of 16, where they were defeated 3-0 by Germany, they will be hoping to perform better this time.
Zambia
With no record of previous appearances at the world cup like Morocco, Africa’s bronze medalists have an opportunity to showcase what they made off.
The Zambian women’s national team’s most recent major international competition was the 2022 Summer Olympics in Japan, where they only managed to secure a draw out of their three group games and conceded 15 goals. However, star player and captain Barbra Banda delivered a historic individual performance.
In their worst loss ever, a 3-10 loss to the Netherlands, Banda scored a hat trick. Later, in a match against China that ended in a 4-4 draw, she added another hat trick.
She made Olympic history as the first female player to record consecutive hat tricks and the first to record two hat tricks in a single competition.
