Defending champions South Africa have booked a blockbuster semifinal date with Nigeria’s Super Falcons after overcoming Senegal 4-1 on penalties in a dramatic quarterfinal clash at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) on Saturday night.
Played at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda, the match ended goalless after 120 minutes of intense football. This forced the game into a penalty shootout, in which the Banyana Banyana displayed nerves of steel.
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South Africa converted all four of their spot-kicks with clinical precision, while the Senegalese faltered, scoring just one of their attempts.
This marks a significant milestone for the South African team, which had lost previous WAFCON penalty shootouts to Equatorial Guinea in the 2008 final and to Nigeria in the 2018 final. Saturday’s win is their first-ever triumph on penalties in the history of the tournament.
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The result sets up a mouth-watering semifinal clash between the two dominant forces in African women’s football—Nigeria and South Africa.
The highly anticipated encounter will be a repeat of the 2022 WAFCON group-stage clash in Morocco, where South Africa stunned Nigeria with a 2-1 victory, handing the Falcons their first group-stage loss in 20 years.
The Super Falcons, who are chasing a record-extending 10th WAFCON title under the campaign theme Mission X, breezed past Zambia with an emphatic 5-0 victory in their quarterfinal on Friday, maintaining their perfect defensive record.
For South Africa, the semifinal represents not just a chance to reach back-to-back finals but also to prove their 2022 title run was no fluke.
READ ALSO: WAFCON 2024: Super Falcons crush Zambia 5-0, storm into semifinals
In the other semifinal, tournament hosts Morocco will take on Ghana’s Black Queens, who are enjoying a WAFCON resurgence after years of underachievement.
The Nigeria vs South Africa semifinal promises to be a fiery encounter between two of the continent’s most talented and ambitious sides—one steeped in legacy, the other burning to retain supremacy.
The match is scheduled for Tuesday in Casablanca.
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